There’s been a revolt against hiring for cultural fit. Business Insider says it leads to a homogeneous workplace. The Harvard Business Review calls it a “misguided hiring strategy” and says to stop doing it. Forbes even published an obituary for the concept, saying it’s “fraught with bias.” With all due respect, they’re wrong. Companies will always have a culture, and culture will always be set by the people you hire. If you’re not actively building a healthy one, you’re passively building a sick one. But the antidote for bad culture is to build good culture—not to pretend you’re building no culture at all. My worst hiring mistakes (and I’ve made doozies) have come when I’ve forgotten culture and hired for something else instead. Determining cultural compatibility is tough to do and tougher to do well—which is why only the best have mastered it. A shibboleth might help. The word “shibboleth” comes from an Old Testament story about the Ephraimites, who devised a test after they were infiltrated by an enemy tribe. Anyone who couldn’t say “shibboleth” with the local pronunciation exposed himself as an imposter. Today, the word is defined by Merriam-Webster as “a word or saying used by adherents of a party, sect, or belief and usually regarded by others as empty of real meaning.” A business who knows itself well will establish certain ideas and concepts that are central to its identity, but meaningless to the outside. Your best hires will be the people who recognize and share your excitement for those concepts. Here’s the really good news: establishing a shibboleth for your company will allow you to better focus your business, invigorate your team, and increase diversity. Here’s how: FOCUS IS FORMED.The hard part—and the real importance—of a shibboleth isn’t finding someone who recognizes it, it’s picking one in the first place. To say exactly who fits your brand requires first understanding your brand. And most companies don’t. But that’s exactly why finding a concise articulation of your identity is such an important exercise: it requires the clarity that is essential for you to succeed. Former IBM CMO Abby Kohnstamm put it this way: “The larger the company, the greater the importance there is to get to a clear, simple brand idea. Ours became a rallying point for the entire organization. It shapes the culture, it shapes business decisions, and it shapes behaviors.” Think about that. A single litmus test against which a firm can evaluate everything. Every hire, every new product decision, every investment opportunity, aligned to a single idea. You know exactly what the most successful brands are about, because they’ve put in the sweat equity to figure it out for themselves. You can’t afford not to do the same. boring becomes breathtaking.It’s the second half of the definition of Shibboleth that’s really important: “usually regarded by others as empty of real meaning.” My firm, which specializes in advertising for stalled, stuck, and stale brands, has helped hundreds of companies find the essence of their identity. Usually, the identity we land on seems boring to outsiders—it hardly ever ends up in ad copy, and nobody outside the company ever knows about it. But that’s why it works: if you get it, you’re attracted to it. And if you don’t, you’ve already disqualified yourself. The idea Kohnstamm (not to mention IBM’s 380,000 employees) was so excited about? “Solutions.” Not exactly a revolution. But solutions to business problems were what IBM’s customer wanted, and that’s what drives IBM. “Solutions” is a boring word to which IBM gave its own special insider meaning. So it became something that IBM employees could get excited about, because it provided a way of articulating what makes them special. And if solving problems isn’t your thing, you’re probably not what IBM is looking for. Like a family in-joke, the whole point of a shibboleth is that the world doesn’t get it. It’s for you, so that when the going gets tough, your team can remind each other why they’re here. DISCRIMINATION DIMINISHES.The worst backlash against “culture fit” is from the people who assume it’s discriminatory. Patty McCord, former Chief Talent Officer from Netflix, argues that “culture fit” is shorthand for ‘people just like us.’ It’s a fair concern, and the practice can be abused that way. Weeding out anything feels a bit discriminatory, so it’s easy to assume that if we all have to agree on culture, then we’ll suffer from groupthink and bias. But in fact, the opposite is true. Every hiring decision is inherently discriminatory. You’re picking one person out of thousands. If you have to discriminate, it’s better to discriminate on the right things. And mathematically, you’ll have the broadest talent pool if you discriminate on only one thing. An organization that lacks a single point everyone can agree on isn’t diverse, it’s divided. On the other hand, the organization who can pinpoint the single concept that defines it has actually opened the door to the most diverse company (and thinking) possible, because it’s eliminated all other incidental or unintentional barriers. You can hire any age, race, background, or expertise, because none of those things are what define who you are. In my own firm, we have a former realtor in our media department, an ex-political-consultant in accounts, and a psychology major in strategy. Our creative director will tell you that recent hires he’s made from outside the agency world have been a lot more successful than those he’s poached from other agencies. The reason those particular team members have panned out—even as seasoned agency pros have come and gone—is that we’re inspired and unified by a single idea. If we can all agree on that one thing, then we can bring diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and strengths to the table in its pursuit. To modern businesses, like the biblical Ephraimites, sifting out those who are not committed to your cause is a matter of life and death. It’s worth taking the extra time to make sure you’re doing it right. And when you do, you’ll stop wasting time on guesswork about whether a person, partner, or project is a fit—because you’ll know who you are. How can you engage your employees' purpose to improve their performance and retain them? Eric Layer will share proven research and strategies from inside and outside the funeral business during his Keynote session — sponsored by National Guardian Life Insurance Co. (NGL) — at CANA’s Cremation Symposium this February 8-10 2023! Join Eric and others to share ideas on re-energizing passion and purpose in funeral service. This year, the event is focused on staffing efficiencies and retention with a host of experts to discuss. See what we have planned and register to attend: goCANA.org/ignite This post originally appeared in the McKee Wallwork Insights blog in April 2018, reprinted with permission.
The purpose of a funeral service is to comfort the living. It is important at a funeral to display excessive grief. This will show others how kind-hearted and loving you are and their improved opinion of you will be very comforting. --Modern Manners (1983) by P. J. O'Rourke, author and satirist (November 13, 1947 – February 14, 2022) Here is CANA’s annual end-of-the year look at the many ways we opt to remember the famous people we’ve lost. For the celebrities who are the focus of this post, remembrance may mean televised concerts, museum retrospectives, and moments of silence in a packed stadium—but it also includes obituaries, flowers, music, and the people who cared about them talking about what made each of their lives special. These are the common things we all do to celebrate a life, grieve a death, and find comfort in one another, whether there are 3 or 3,000,000 people gathering. As you read, we encourage you to consider the many ways there are to remember a life you want to memorialize—be it a donation in someone's name to a favorite charity, a custom flower arrangement in a meaningful design, or a cremation keepsake necklace with a personal message. Each is a way of capturing a significant memory. As funeral professionals often say, “Memorial options are as unique as the life lived.” That these well-known individuals chose chose cremation speaks to how it can facilitate the story-telling process. Celebrity entries appear in alphabetical order. SHINZO ABESEPTEMBER 21, 1954 – JULY 8, 2022 Shinzo Abe was first elected to Japan’s political office in 1993. Abe occupied several governmental seats before becoming Prime Minister in 2006 and again in 2012. The longest-serving Prime Minister in Japanese history, he retired during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, claiming he was in poor health. In July of 2022, Abe was campaigning on behalf of his political party when he was assassinated – a rare and shocking event in an otherwise peaceful country with strict gun laws. Abe’s family held a private service before his cremation on July 12th, and people lined the streets as the hearse drove from the temple to the crematory. As is traditional, his urn was then kept at home for a period of mourning before burial. On September 27th, Abe's widow carried his urn from their home to the state memorial service. State funerals are rare in Japan and Abe’s controversial legacy led to nationwide protests, but Prime Minister Fumio Kishida wanted to honor Abe’s tenure in office and presence on the national stage. More than 4,300 gathered in the arena for the first state memorial since 1967, including leaders from across the world. photo source POOL / VIA REUTERS - The Japan Times: Japan bids farewell to former PM Shinzo Abe with controversial state funeral mike bossyJANUARY 22, 1957 – APRIL 15, 2022 Michael “Mike” Bossy started his National Hockey League career by winning the 1978 Calder Memorial Trophy as rookie of the year and broke the previous record for most goals scored by a rookie. He spent his entire career with the New York Islanders, helping them win their four consecutive Stanley Cup wins from 1980-1983. Recounting the rest of his awards and achievements is best left to other publications, but he is still considered one of the best scorers in the league. In 1991, he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame, and then named one of the 100 Greatest NHL Players in history in 2017. After his retirement, he moved to broadcasting but stepped away after his lung cancer diagnosis last year. In his memory, the New York Islanders wore a memorial patch on their sweaters featuring his No. 22 which was permanently retired in 1992. At their game against the Montreal Canadiens in Bossy’s native Montreal on the night of his death, the arena held a tribute and observed a moment of silence in his honor. His funeral, packed with hundreds of fans, friends, family, and hockey personalities featured his jersey, signed by fellow hockey greats, and his number in flower arrangements. FridaAPRIL 12, 2009 – NOVEMBER 15, 2022 During her career in the search and rescue division of the Mexican Navy, Frida assisted first responders in major disasters in Haiti and Ecuador and across Mexico. The canine’s heroism during the 2017 Puebla earthquake made her a symbol of Mexico’s resilience and a celebrity across the world. During her career, Frida helped rescue 12 people and recovered 43 others, whose remains were returned to their loved ones. In June 2019, Frida swapped her signature goggles and boots for a toy. Even in retirement, she continued her service by training other dogs before she died on November 15, 2022. #HastaSiempreFrida trended with videos, fanart, and posts, thanking her for her life-saving heroics. On November 24, 2022, the Navy held a memorial service attended by Frida’s human and canine colleagues. Her urn was placed in the base of her statue at Naval headquarters, serving as a monument to her memory. taylor hawkinsFEBRUARY 17, 1972 – MARCH 25, 2022 Oliver Taylor Hawkins was the drummer for rock artists like Sass Jordan and Alanis Morrisette before finding a permanent home with The Foo Fighters. For 25 years, Hawkins played the drums and contributed vocals and songwriting to the band’s success. Hawkins died while touring with The Foo Fighters in Colombia, just hours before they were to take the stage at the Festival Estereo Picnic in Bogotá. That night, the stage turned into a candlelight vigil instead, and the screen projected “Taylor Hawkins Por Siempre.” In his hometown of Laguna Beach, California a week later, fans gathered in his honor to host a drum circle on the beach where he would surf. On September 3rd, The Foo Fighters and Hawkins’ family hosted a tribute concert in London, live-streamed to the world. Their first live performance since his death, the event lasted more than six hours and featured artists like Sir Elton John and especially his fellow drummers from Blink-182, The Pretenders and Metallica. Afterward, at the band’s hometown event on September 27, Alanis Morrisette, Joan Jett were featured, along with Hawkins’ 16-year-old son Shane, who drummed for The Foo Fighters’ “My Hero.” ARTIS LEON “COOLIO” IVEY JR.AUGUST 1, 1963 – SEPTEMBER 28, 2022 Artis Leon Ivey, Jr. topped charts and won Grammy Awards as Coolio in the 1990s for his rap and hip-hop tracks. Millennials will also know him for the theme song for Kenan & Kel and “Rollin’ with the Homies” featured in Clueless, but “Gangsta’s Paradise” was his breakthrough success internationally, earning Coolio awards and a rare billion-plus YouTube views. After Coolio’s unexpected death due to cardiac arrest, his family held a private memorial service with custom airbrushed shirts: "He wanted a party and for everybody to celebrate his life, play music, just fill up the room and smile, have a good time.” Each of the artist’s children will receive a keepsake necklace with his cremated remains, inscribed with a personal message from their father. As his eldest son explained, “our father always prepared us for things that might happen. My father was a very spiritual person. He didn’t fear death at all. It was another step to paradise.” THIERRY MUGLERDECEMBER 21, 1948 – JANUARY 23, 2022 Manfred Thierry Mugler launched the Mugler fashion house in the 1970s. Known for his exaggerated approach to haute couture, Thierry Mugler designed for David Bowie, Beyoncé, Demi Moore, Kim Kardashian, and Cirque du Soleil. He revolutionized the perfume industry with Angel in 1992, as a new category of gourmand fragrance. After stepping back from leading Mugler, he reclaimed the name Manfred Mugler as a bodybuilder following a disfiguring motorcycle accident in 2010. In September 2021, le Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris launched a retrospective exhibit of his career in Thierry Mugler: Couturissime in his honor during fashion week, and the Mugler fashion house hosted a star-studded opening party. By contrast, his funeral was private, restricted to his closest family and friends, and lacking in any theatrical elements. The service was a “thanksgiving for life” and left an emotional imprint on those who attended. His urn was placed in a private mini-columbarium in Paris’s Cimetière du Père Lachaise. DAME OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHNSEPTEMBER 26, 1948 – AUGUST 8, 2022 Olivia Newton-John considered becoming a veterinarian until the coursework steered her toward the performing arts instead. An actor and singer from her youth, she found success as a country star before the movie musical Grease established her as a pop icon who could pull off a yellow poodle skirt or tight leather pants with equal grace. Her multiple cancer diagnoses spurred her to open the Olivia Newton-John Cancer and Wellness Centre in Melbourne, Australia in 2012, dedicated to treatment, wellness, and research. In recent years, her own cancer returned and spread, but she remained active in supporting her various causes. Newton-John’s family held a private service just before what would have been her 74th birthday. In an interview, she explained that she wanted her cremated remains scattered on her property in Byron Bay, Australia, the same place where her mother and sister’s ashes had been dispersed, so they would all be together. She hoped that some portions would also be scattered in California and other places that meant something to her, but admitted that “I don’t think I’ve really thought about it that deeply. We all should.” A state memorial is being planned for Melbourne's Royal Botanic Gardens, a favorite spot of Newton-John’s, where her mother already has a memorial bench. NICHELLE NICHOLSDECEMBER 28, 1932 – JULY 30, 2022 Grace Dell “Nichelle” Nichols broke barriers as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura in the original Star Trek series from 1966 to 1969. As a black woman leading the communications department and fourth in command of a spaceship in the 23rd century, Nichols’ represented what the contemporary Civil Rights Movement strove to achieve. For that reason, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said Star Trek was the only show his children were allowed to stay up to watch. When her role concluded, she continued her acting career, as well as assisting NASA in recruiting women and people of color to join the space program. Suitably, Nichols will visit the final frontier as part of the Celestis Enterprise Flight in early 2023 aboard the United Launch Alliance Vulcan Centaur rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida. A portion of her cremated remains will be sent to the far reaches of space with other memorials and messages. Making the trip with Nichols is Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry who died in August 2021; "the First Lady of Star Trek," his wife Majel Barrett Roddenberry who played Nurse Christine Chapel and died in 2008; and James Doohan who played Lt. Commander Montgomery "Scotty" Scott who died in 2005. A lock of hair DeForest Kelley’s hair will also be on board. Kelley played Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy and died in 1999. ANDRÉ LEON TALLEYOCTOBER 16, 1948 – JANUARY 18, 2022 André Leon Talley was a fixture in the fashion world, standing out from the crowd because of his 6’6” frame, signature personal style, and because he was frequently the only Black man in the room. Talley broke barriers as creative director of American Vogue—the only Black person to hold that position. Talley worked with other fashion publications and served as a mentor to many. No stranger to grief, Talley found comfort in food after the deaths of his grandmother and fashion mentor Diana Vreeland, and changed his bespoke suits for caftans and capes. In his memoir, he remarks “Caftans are my wellness retreat… I intend to leave in my will that I am to be cremated in a caftan.” Talley’s loved ones waited to remember him during his favorite season, spring, with a memorial service shared by more than 700 fans, friends, and family. While the style icon never specified plans for his own service, his mourners could not pass up an opportunity to share memories about this fashion leader. Filled with flowers, music, and stories, a two-hour service celebrated his life as his loved ones remembered him. While this author cannot be certain Talley was cremated, it is believed he rejoins his grandmother, Mrs. Bennie Frances Roberson Davis, with a new monument added to her gravesite reading Beloved Grandson Andre. ARCHBISHOP DESMOND MPILO TUTUOCTOBER 7, 1931 – DECEMBER 26, 2021 Archbishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu lent his voice and pulpit to the civil rights movement in South Africa to end apartheid. His legacy was cemented in 1984 when he won the Nobel Peace Prize "for his role as a unifying leader figure in the non-violent campaign to resolve the problem of apartheid in South Africa." In his later years, he continued his activism on behalf of causes such as marriage equality and world peace. Tutu’s death made headlines, not just for his passing but also for his disposition. To carry his values in life into his death, he requested simplicity at his state funeral on January 1. The only flowers were a bouquet of carnations for his family and his casket was made of unvarnished pine. He also chose alkaline hydrolysis, sometimes known as water cremation. This is a relatively new disposition method, particularly in South Africa. Tutu’s cremated remains were placed behind the pulpit of St. George’s Cathedral in Cape Town, South Africa, where he served as Archbishop for 35 years. betty whiteJANUARY 17, 1922 – DECEMBER 31, 2021 Betty White’s television career spanned more than seven decades, leading to a Guinness world-record for the longest TV career for a female entertainer and recognition as The First Lady of Television. Across all formats and genres—with comedy, drama, game shows, and soap operas via television, film, and radio—Betty White covered a lot of Hollywood ground and became an international treasure. On January 17, 2022, she and the world would have celebrated her 100th birthday, with a special film retrospective. Unfortunately, she died on New Year’s Eve at the age of 99. What had been planned as a party instead became an international memorial service as the “Betty White: A Celebration” film expanded to more than 1,500 theaters. While her funeral was private and she asked that her final resting place not be disclosed, her hometown of Oak Park, Illinois took the opportunity to commemorate her legacy. On January 15th, to avoid conflicts with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the village hosted “Betty White Day” with Cindy Fee, who originally voiced the Golden Girls theme, leading attendees in singing, “Thank You for Being a Friend,” cutouts of the star for photo opps, and a pet adoption event in support of White’s lifelong cause of animal welfare. Across the world, people joined the #BettyWhiteChallenge to donate to nonprofit organizations that support animal causes, an effort which is estimated to have raised more than $12.7 million in her name. Ever wonder what it was like to be a buggy whip maker during the rise of the automobile? Look in the mirror. Numerous trends are converging to create the dramatic change we’re experiencing today, including the generational shift away from Boomers, the splintering of cultural norms, and the unnerving impact of late-stage digital industrialization literally changing how everything is made, sold, and delivered. We may not be buggy whip makers anymore, but we’re experiencing a similarly historic change in the fundamentals of our economy. And just as businesspeople in the 19thcentury bespoke economy had to learn the new rules of industrialization, we must learn a new way of conducting modern business. Below are five new rules for our new economy. Together, they are a foundation for generating momentum for businesses and value for customers in our transforming world. 1. SYSTEMS BEAT SWITCHESWestern civilization champions individualism and the use of the scientific method to parse out discrete problems, identify “control” variables, and pursue solutions by manipulating one variable at a time. This perspective views problems as if they are light switches in a home that can be isolated and manipulated room by room. Silicon Valley, on the other hand, champions a worldview more prevalent in the East that sees reality as a series of interconnected networks in constant flux. Think Butterfly Effect minus Ashton Kutcher’s 2004 film of the same name. Winners in our digital economy (not coincidentally, built by those Silicon Valley engineers) embrace a view of business rooted in Systems Thinking. It’s not just a light switch, but a house filled with wires, a city-wide infrastructure, a regional power source, and a national electrical grid. The truth is that business and life are dynamic. Reality is a complicated web of interconnected systems. It’s unrealistic to isolate variables and turn them on and off like a light switch in the real world. So don’t pretend to. 20th century companies think in switches. 21st century companies think in systems. 2. FLEXIBILITY BEATS SYNCHRONICITYBusiness models that thrived under mid-stage industrialization were built on synchronicity. Break the product into its component parts, get everyone and everything set up perfectly on an assembly line, then keep everything running as smoothly as possible. Like a symphony, when this model worked, it was beautiful. But late-stage digital industrialization has changed the game. The internet fragments everyone and everything, creating many little pockets of change occurring simultaneously at incredible speed. This new world requires an entirely new approach to business that emphasizes flexibility over efficiency. Ditch the assembly line and burn the conductor’s baton. As I’ve written before, the future belongs to jazz. 3. VELOCITY BEATS SPEEDFast. Faster. Fastest. Speed is on everyone’s mind because technology is enabling such rapid change. According to our latest research among business leaders across the country, nearly 30% of companies today are suffering from stalled growth or commoditization. Companies (and even industries) are moving through the Disruption Cycle so quickly it’s making everyone feel dizzy. But trying to stay competitive by just running faster isn’t enough. Speed is simply a measure of how fast something is moving. But speed alone can just as easily hasten decline as keep one competitive. Velocity, on the other hand, is the measure of speed with direction. You can move quickly in circles, but it gets you nowhere. Add direction to your efforts. Speed is only part of the solution. Growth requires velocity. 4. CONFIDENCE BEATS CERTAINTYThe comparably slow rates of change enjoyed in the past enabled a powerful illusion. Because one could count on culture and technology gradually changing over years or even decades, looking back at historical data had some value in predicting the near future. This illusion provided confidence by removing uncertainty. And now it’s going away. Because the modern economy moves exponentially faster, looking at historical data has limited predictive power. To avoid losing their nerve, organizations need to find ways to get their swagger back. Agile methodology, customer-centeredness, and prototyping are all techniques to stay in the now and make confident bets. As an executive of a Fortune 100 corporation recently stated to a colleague of mine, “It used to be test, test, test, test, then rollout,” he said. “[Now it’s] test, rollout, learn, modify…” Certainty was yesterday’s illusion. Confidence is today’s way of doing business. 5. MOMENTUM BEATS PERFECTIONDuring Facebook’s rise it famously painted “Done is better than perfect” across its walls. As digital technology transforms the economy and increased speed-to-market becomes a price of entry for business, it’s imperative for leaders to throw off the fading luxury of perfection and embrace a new ethos. Today’s leadership must foster a shared feeling of growth and improvement in their organizations best referred to as momentum. Businesses that pursue momentum instead of perfection are more concerned with customer problems than internal navel-gazing, appreciate the power of organizational health, and understand that if a group of people feel like they will win, they often do. Perfection was last century’s lie. Momentum is this century’s imperative. The incredible change we’re living through doesn’t have to lead to doom and gloom. If you research a little more about the horse and buggy industry, you’ll learn that many companies actually successfully transitioned to the automotive industry. But it wasn’t easy. Just as our forebears navigated the Industrial Revolution a century ago, it is our turn to navigate change. With the proper focus on systems, flexibility, velocity, confidence, and momentum, you can ditch the horse and buggy too. Few organizations understand the internal dynamics that can keep them from maintaining momentum. Take the 60-second self-diagnosis survey (based on research conducted among thousands of companies) to diagnose your company’s trajectory and give you a sense of what factors are helping, or hindering, your momentum. How do company culture and employee relations effect earnings and financial success? Jonathan Lewis leads a compelling discussion on understanding the holistic picture of your company's health during his Culture Compass workshop session at CANA’s Cremation Symposium this February 8-10 2023! The 2023 Symposium is here to energize passion and purpose in the new year with a focus on staffing retention and efficiencies. Plus, Jonathan serves as event emcee, offering insights and activities that keep ideas and conversation flowing. See what else we have planned and register to attend: goCANA.org/ignite This post originally appeared in the McKee Wallwork Insights blog in November 2018, reprinted with permission.
The funeral industry is not exempt from start-ups and innovative ideas that go nowhere. I’m sure you could think of one yourself – one of them might even have been yours – but I won’t call out any here. That’s why it’s not wholly surprising that the most common question I get from the media, regulators, and curious practitioners is “Is human composting real?” To which I say, “Yes.” There is a unique energy around legalizing natural organic reduction, in that most legislation has been consumer-driven, with support from practitioners. As one of the most progressive organizations in this space, CANA is the first death care association to answer these questions and provide insight from a funeral profession perspective. Informed by more than 100 years of experience in emerging technologies, we were eager to host some of the earliest NOR practitioners at our events and offered opportunities for question-and-answer sessions to explore this groundbreaking idea. Now we can compile what we know – and what we have yet to figure out – here, for you. NATURAL ORGANIC REDUCTIONNatural Organic Reduction, also known as, NOR and Natural Reduction are the terms used in legislation and regulations related to this process, so that’s how CANA refers to it. More commonly used terms by the media or general public are Human Composting, Soil Transformation, or Body Composting, which are descriptive and useful for understanding the process more broadly. Some practitioners have coined proprietary terms like Terramation and Recomposition to describe their specific business offerings. NOR was first legalized in 2019 in Washington. Colorado and Oregon followed in 2021 and Vermont and California in 2022, with several other states considering the practice in the coming years. To legislators, it is a thing. But what kind of thing? Here’s where it can get interesting. THE PROCESS: SCIENCECompost is organic material that has decomposed to a nutrient-rich soil. At home, compost is food scraps and yard waste. For farms, it might be the livestock or the crops after harvest. Soil is, in fact, a mixture of decomposed organic matter with other naturally occurring elements like gases, liquids, living organisms, etc. Once the waste decomposes, it can’t be separated from the other soil around it to say “that’s the orange peel, that’s the eggshell, and that’s the dandelion” — it’s all one piece of earth. Human composting is the same but different. First, you can’t add a human body to your compost barrel: it’s illegal and it’s not what most people have in mind when they think of a proper send-off. Second, humans are large animals and require a sizeable quantity of other organic material to mix with during decomposition. Plus, anyone who composts knows that you need to keep air circulating and bacteria alive so that the matter decays rather than molds or rots. For human composting, this is where the professionals come in. The interest in composting for human disposition is not new. Mary Roach’s Stiff, first published in 2003, shares the story of Tim Evans, then a graduate student at the University of Tennessee Anthropological Research Facility, who working to find a way to compost human remains. Evans had to aerate the compost pile and acknowledged that “It was hard being out there” to properly tend to the composting remains. The real need was to make composting doable within a reasonable timeframe, in compliance with regulations regarding body disposition, and in an acceptable manner for families. SAME BUT DIFFERENT In all states, the law allows for cremation and burial. As we’ve discussed before, some states have expanded their cremation law to include alkaline hydrolysis (aka water cremation, Aquamation, Resomation, etc.) Burial is easiest to understand: intact body placed in the ground (or crypt, mausoleum, etc.). Cremation and alkaline hydrolysis take the intact body, put it through a process using a combination of heat and/or chemicals so that just the bone matter of the body remains. But NOR takes an intact body and goes through a process that results in soil. There are no ashes to place or keep or scatter, no DNA to identify your loved one from other soil, generally no way of preventing comingling of remains with others’ (often prohibited in all cremation laws), and maybe not even a place to visit (depending on where the soil ends up). When Katrina Spade and Recompose were exploring how to get Recomposition legalized in Washington State, the process was not legal anywhere in the world. With input from law professor Tanya Marsh, who focuses on funeral law, the company decided that the most straightforward way of bringing NOR to the public would be to create a new statute for human reduction. That’s why some states are creating a new disposition category of “reduction of human remains” with subcategories for cremation, AH and NOR. The common factor in each is that they accelerate the reduction of human remains in a facility, using specially designed equipment. It is CANA’s position that natural organic reduction is a unique form of disposition, not a type of cremation, and should be regulated separately. This means there are three ways of reducing a human body more quickly than burial: cremation, alkaline hydrolysis, and reduction. Each offers a unique process that requires specific equipment and training, and provides choice for families to do what feels right to them. Adapted from Tanya Marsh's August 2022 presentation titled "The Challenges of Regulating Emerging Death Care Technologies: Green Burial, Alkaline Hydrolysis, & Natural Organic Reduction." With thanks for her expertise in the these topics. The differences we’ve described, as seen in the chart above, are the reason that these three reduction methods must be regulated separately. While the core of a death care professional’s job doesn’t change with the process — they take custody of the deceased, care for their loved ones, carry out the family’s wishes, and ensure that the remains get where they need to go with dignity and care — the processes themselves are very different. The funeral profession’s first concern is always the dignified treatment of the deceased, and in the case of new processes that requires the training and knowledge to do it right. For regulators, that means setting the standard to measure the safety and ability to perform the process. This includes considerations for location and traffic, the environment and emissions, and employee health and safety. Both funeral professionals and regulators are dedicated to providing options to the public that meet all expectations for safety and excellence. THE PROCESS: R&DAn internet search will highlight a few practitioners in the Pacific Northwest and the American Southwest who appear in news articles discussing this new option for consumers. Because human reduction is only beginning to be legalized, there are currently few options for the public to choose NOR. Funeral homes that currently offer NOR have carefully created their own vessels and developed their own technology, processes and proprietary mixes of organic material to reduce a human body to soil. That means that the process is pretty much limited to those who are willing to undertake the same sort of research and development process themselves. The only other option is for existing practitioners who offer NOR to partner with other funeral service providers to serve their families – though some of these providers are already operating at capacity. Current cremation and alkaline hydrolysis regulations require equipment manufactured specifically for the process (hence, purpose-built). They require this to standardize the process and ensure the health and safety of the operators and public seeking these options. The lack of manufacturers of body composting vessels is a barrier to entry for many who would add it as an option for their communities – at least for the moment. Without the uniform equipment, each practitioner’s process is proprietary, but there are a few things about the science in current methods that are universal. First, the only things that go in the vessel are organic matter. That means the body, either bare or shrouded only in organic natural fibers, the plant matter and bacteria, and little else. Brie Smith of Return Home advises families that, “If it can go through your gut, it can go through our vessel,” meaning that families can place meaningful keepsakes in, too, so long as they can be composted. Unwrapped Twinkies? Yes! That penny you swallowed on a dare? No—or rather: it’s going to come out the other side. The reduction of the body takes anywhere from 7 weeks to 12 months, depending on the practitioner and their process. Loved ones are encouraged to be present when the body is placed, or “laid in," and to visit during the reduction. During the transformation, the vessel will run hot, spiking more than 130°F as microbes get to work. This high temperature also kills pathogens, bacteria and viruses that might be present in the body (though some medical conditions prevent NOR and some viruses and prions are not killed by NOR). Each provider also has a proprietary method for ensuring that air and matter circulates so the compost process generates soil. When the process is complete, families can receive approximately 27 cubic feet of soil from the reduction of their loved one – enough to fill the bed of a pickup truck. As Earth Funeral Group of Washington says, “The nutrient-rich soil created during the process is used for land restoration and improving soil health. Healthy soil is paramount to a healthy ecosystem as it filters water, provides nutrients to plants and animals, sequesters carbon, reduces landslides and flooding, and helps regulate global temperatures.” For a farmer or gardener, this volume of soil can be wonderful. Others can choose to take a portion of the soil to use on their own property or to keep at home in an urn or jewelry or some other keepsake, just as they do with cremated remains (though the soil needs to be sufficiently dry first). Remaining soil is then spread by the practitioner in nature. The Natural Funeral in Colorado offers a “laying out” ceremony when the resulting soil is spread on personal or public lands. growing interestCremation has gained popularity over the past 50 years largely because it offered an alternative to burial. It offered new options and captured the imagination of people seeking a new ways of personalizing their funeral. As in life, people want to express their values in death. Providing diverse options are good for families to personalize their experience. NOR practitioners report that their early adopters are “a diverse mix of people from all over” – that’s why so many states are moving quickly to make the option legal. While there is opposition to the practice from outside and inside funeral service, there is an energy for NOR that we don’t see very often in funeral disposition legalization. The general public is excited for the option, legislators are energized to bring innovative ideas to the fore, and practitioners are curious if the participation in CANA’s recent events is anything to go by. Some funeral homes are poised to bring NOR to their community as soon as they can. Any time I’m asked about a new form of disposition, the inevitable next question is how fast it will grow. Will NOR replace cremation? Or will it speed up the decline of burials? Would early adopters have chosen burial or cremation if NOR was not an option? As I often say, my crystal ball is broken. Only time will tell. CANA’s own statistics show that, like widespread adoption of any new technology, a critical mass must make that choice before it takes off. CANA’s Annual Statistics Report will be tracking these data as the law changes to allow this form of disposition, so look for more content on the topic. With thanks to Katrina Spade of Recompose for participating in CANA’s 2021 Convention, and to Brie Smith of Return Home and Seth Viddal of The Natural Funeral for participating in the Green Funeral Conference 2022, and to each of them for sharing their experience with curious practitioners. They are quoted from their presentations on the topic of NOR and members can read more from their sessions in The Cremationist. Not a member yet? Consider joining for just $495 to stay in touch with emerging trends and best practices in death care. CANA’s Board of Directors approved a Position Statement on Natural Organic Reduction on November 16, 2022, with recommendations on regulating the process as more states are interested. You can read it as well as statements on recycling, alkaline hydrolysis, and CANA’s Model Law on Cremation here. CANA's 2023 Cremation Symposium continues the conversation on NOR and other Emerging Trends with a special session moderated by SCI AVP and CANA President Caressa Hughes. We'll spark debate among participants on important topics including the changes to the FTC Funeral Rule, split licensure and new forms of disposition. Join the discussion by registering to attend the Cremation Symposium this February 8-10, 2023 in Las Vegas!
For every death in the US, research shows that an average of nine close family members grieve. As funeral professionals, you are called to serve these people, plus the friends, coworkers, neighbors, and many others that face an uncertain future without their loved one. Your job is all the more important—and more challenging—when those people are children. The 2022 Children Bereavement Estimation Model (CBEM) estimates that over 5.9% children will lose a parent or sibling before the age of 18 in the US. That is one in 13 children, a number that has only increased since COVID. In the US, the Hidden Pain Initiative estimates that over 203,649 children under 18 lost a caregiver to COVID-19. November is Children and Teens’ Grief Awareness Month, so we thought we would take a moment to reflect on what makes childhood grief unique and share some valuable resources to support your work with these most vulnerable and important members of your community. JUDI’S HOUSE/JAG INSTITUTEFormer National Football League quarterback Brian Griese and his wife, Dr. Brook Griese, a clinical psychologist specializing in childhood trauma and loss, founded Judi’s House in memory of his mother, who died from breast cancer when he was just 12 years old. While the organization’s events are primarily directed to children and families in need in Denver, the Judi’s House/JAG Institute Childhood Bereavement Estimation Model (CBEM), developed with the New York Life Foundation, provides valuable insight on the impact grief has on youth, families, and communities across the country. Knowledge is power, and the CBEM provides both national and state-level information on children’s grief. If you want to take action on issues your community faces, the CBEM provides messaging, downloadable graphics, and an action plan to help you serve as a resource regarding the impact on children’s grief in your community.. DOUGY CENTERThe Dougy Center started with 13-year-old Dougy, who had an inoperable brain tumor and needed to talk honestly about death and dying. The Center’s original peer support opportunities in Portland, Oregon, grew to become a national resource where grieving children, teens, young adults, and families can share their experiences before and after a death. Through their Resources for Caring Community Professionals, the Dougy Center offers tip sheets to help children facing a variety of needs, activities to engage kids and teens, and a bookstore filled with resources on many topics, including What About the Kids? Understanding Their Needs in Funeral Planning & Services. They also have selfcare resources for helping professionals, a podcast to talk about Grief Out Loud, and Grief Education & Training on how to better support children, teens, and young adults who are grieving. ELUNAEluna was founded in 2000 by former Major League Baseball pitcher Jamie Moyer and child advocate Karen Phelps Moyer in Seattle, Washington. Today, their network has expanded to every Major League Baseball city as well as additional locations across the US and Canada. They’re best known for Camp Erin, a free weekend camp for grieving children and teens that combines traditional, fun camp activities with grief education and emotional support. They also have hundreds of resources on children’s grief, including many activity ideas to help grieve and memorialize loved ones. Their Community Conversations touch on the unique experiences of grief in Black and Latino communities, with resources that speak directly to them. Eluna also offers care packages for children to provide outlets and ways to connect when facing grief. HIGHMARK CARING FOUNDATIONThe Highmark Caring Foundation serves many counties in central and western Pennsylvania. Their website offers insights on how children grieve, asking “What is lost? What is left? What is possible?” The Foundation’s Illuminating HOPE is a virtual gathering of butterflies with meaningful messages so children know that they are supported in their grief. Highmark also recognizes November 17, 2022 as Children's Grief Awareness Day, offering a full day of virtual activities to support children and raise awareness of their experiences. The organization provides resources to participate during the day with graphics, messages, and many activities to unite your community in support of grieving children. Remember to wear blue on November 17! NATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR CHILDREN’S GRIEFThe National Alliance for Children’s Grief (NACG) was founded by committed grief professionals who saw a need to support children’s unique experience. Today, they are a professional member organization of over 1,700 members addressing issues related to childhood bereavement. Every year, NACG offers national and regional conferences to focus on issues that matter. Their virtual Fall Conference, sponsored by Dignity Memorial, is this Friday, November 4, 2022, and will focus on supporting children and families following a stigmatized death. For members and non-members alike, NACG offers a resource library filled with articles on providing support, activity ebooks to engage children in their experience and feelings, and more. In honor of Children’s Grief Awareness Month in November, the group hosts a series of events to raise awareness and support for grieving children. This November 2022, their focus is listening, and you can join their free grief talks, share their social campaign, and use their action center get your community involved. FUNERAL SERVICE FOUNDATIONAs you’re likely already aware, the Funeral Service Foundation is dedicated to improving the funeral profession and deathcare services with meaningful, impactful resources and programs. On the subject of children’s grief, they offer several free resources on the value of funerals and memorialization for a child’s positive grief journey. WITH SPECIFIC MISSIONS, THERE’S ALSO:
WHAT YOU CAN DOResearch shows that grieving children are at much greater risk than others for depression, suicide, poverty, and substance abuse. Supporting them in their grief is a challenging but rewarding part of your work as a funeral professional. This resource list is here to help! However, this list cannot possibly encompass the valuable work that your community provides to its youth. Most of these national and international organizations provide ways of identifying local resources from individual grief counselors to peer support groups and organizations suited to your community’s needs. As a funeral professional, you never know who will walk in your door next. Having the resources on hand to provide support and the skills to support the grieving go a long way toward demonstrating your commitment to your families and your community. As Tom Anderson remarked in Funeral Director Daily, simply knowing there is a need isn’t enough. As a profession, we need to listen to their need and go above and beyond for these families and these children. You can update your website and your brochure rack with resources from national and local children’s bereavement centers – like Healing Hearts Connection supporting community members in Minnesota and Wisconsin where Alicia Carr (of CANA Member Kelco Funeral Supply) is a Board Member. You can educate yourself so that when you see a family, you can be ready to support their grief and help them find other support systems. And, if you see a need in your community, you can take action to raise awareness with your leaders and organizations, informed by what you’ve learned from these sources. The next time you host a community event, you can give extra thought to the grieving children, teens, and young adults with activities just for them. Next year, you can even hold your own event in November to raise awareness and support for Children and Teen’s Grief Awareness Month. Grief expert Doug Manning says, “Time does not heal all wounds. All time does is allow wounds to fester and create more and more hurt.” Every person we encounter in deathcare is in some type of grief. Each grief experience is unique and we must become adept at recognizing and responding to each manifestation of grief in each person. That’s where The Power of Presence comes in. Developed with experts at InSight Books, this online and on-demand course shows you what grief can look like and how you can respond. #ActYourWage, Do Your Job, Working at Work, Morale Adjusted Productivity. These are all different expressions for the same concept – Quiet Quitting. If you haven’t heard the phrase taking over social media in the last few months, rest assured that your employees have. And that they are talking about it. But what is it? Is it a real thing? And how should you respond? what is quiet quittingAccording to this NPR article, the phrase originated from a TikTok user’s seventeen-second video where he explains that quiet quitting happens when you’re “not outright quitting your job, but you’re quitting the idea of going above and beyond.” You still get your work done, but you’re rejecting the hustle culture mentality that your life has to be your work. He emphasizes that “your worth as a person is not defined by your labor.” In other words, quiet quitting has nothing to do with quitting. It’s more a philosophy for doing the minimum work necessary to keep a job. Those who identify as quiet quitters reject the idea that life should revolve around work, and they resist the expectation of giving it their all or going beyond the job description. They believe in setting boundaries and completing the tasks assigned to them within the time they are paid to do them. No more working off-the-clock and checking messages every time the phone dings. They argue it is a way to safeguard their mental health, prevent burnout, and prioritize family and friends. Critics say that it’s passive aggressive behavior, won’t accomplish what workers really want and puts more burden on their co-workers. Hamilton Nolan, writing in The Guardian, notes that workers in past generations felt this same sense of “collective malaise,” but rather than coasting at work they channeled their frustrations into creating unions. They didn’t quit and they weren’t quiet. They loudly fixed what they knew was wrong. According to Gallup’s 2022 Employee Engagement Survey, the proportion of workers engaged with their job remains at 32%, but the proportion of actively disengaged workers increased to 18%. These are the “loud quitters” who have most of their needs unmet and spread their displeasure and are also the most vocal in their own TikTok posts. The share of those in the middle, who are just not engaged at all, is 50%. They meet Gallup’s definition of people who do the bare minimum and are psychologically detached from their jobs. It is important to note that the increase in dissatisfaction is primarily among remote millennial and Gen Z workers. But these generations are becoming disengaged for the same reasons as anyone else, which we’ll cover shortly. WHO IS QUIETLY QUITTING?If Gallup’s data doesn’t show a significant change in how workers feel about their jobs over the last few years, then is quiet quitting even real? Many suggest that it’s just a new name for an old behavior and it is a normal feature of the American workplace. It’s actually less about an employee’s willingness to work harder and more creatively and more about the manager’s ability to communicate effectively and with empathy, build rapport, establish reasonable expectations, and provide the workflow efficiencies needed for everyone to do their jobs well. We’re also likely talking about quiet quitting more than it’s actually happening. A recent Axios poll of younger workers found that only 15% were doing the minimum at work, despite a lot of them admitting that it sounded “appealing.” Maybe those who coined the term and evangelize the idea of quiet quitting are realizing what those of us with more years in the workforce eventually learned – sometimes a job is just a job and doesn’t have a deeper meaning. And to get fired, you have to be bad at your job, not just coasting along. With employers constantly saying they can’t find enough workers, there is unprecedented job security for employees right now, reducing the incentive to work harder. Companies can’t afford to fire employees, and there are plenty of jobs open if someone does get fired. The reality is that whether we call it quiet quitting or burnout or something else, the behavior isn’t new. And low employee engagement is a symptom of poor management. HOW SHOULD YOU RESPOND?Managers need to learn to have conversations with their employees and get to know them as individuals – understand their life situations, strengths and goals. Then they need to have an honest conversation with each employee about the expectations of the job, using a job description as the guide. No job description? Then that is the first thing that needs to be addressed. A job description is the most effective tool you have to clearly articulate expectations to an employee. In addition to the knowledge and skills they’ll need to be successful, it should list the primary and secondary responsibilities of a person in this position, the number of hours they are expected to work each week and whether and how often that includes nights and weekends. Second, managers need to create accountability for their entire team as well as all the individuals that make up that team. If you have an environment where some are held accountable and others get away without meeting expectations, disengagement will be common. Employees also need to see how their work contributes to the team’s goals and the organization’s larger purpose. Your culture should be one where every employee is engaged and feels they belong. Finally, support the quiet quitters who define it as setting healthy boundaries and reclaiming their personal lives. Those employees who grind around the clock with limited time for self-care lose the ability to be their best selves, impacting the success of the organization. These are the workers who burn out and burnout can look a lot like quiet quitting. It appears as disengagement and often comes from expending too much effort for too little reward. You support them by having a conversation and coming to agreement on whether the assigned work can be completed to the expected standards during the time they are being paid to work. If it can’t be, what resources are available to them to increase efficiency and prevent them from having to work overtime? Work-life balance is a key expectation now and it is not reasonable to rely on employees constantly going above and beyond the job description. If you want more, then explicitly convey that and expect to compensate the employee accordingly. Your employees are your number one asset, and the funeral profession sees up to 30% of graduates leaving the profession after five years. Reasons cited for this include long hours, low pay and poor company culture. But these reasons are in a manager’s control. The answer to quiet quitting is out-loud conversations about your company’s culture, expectations, and goals. Employees will voluntarily go above and beyond when they feel valued, and that is how we retain and engage employees. CANA has resources to support businesses that want to improve their job descriptions, employee expectation rubric, and annual evaluation process. Three Tools for Improving Your Business is an online and on-demand course that takes a deeper dive into these important parts of managing staff, and it’s free for CANA Members (and just $15 for everyone else) with 1.0 CEU from the Academy! CANA Members can also access these tools and consult with Education Director Jennifer Werthman on how to improve their employee engagement and retention.
If you like this article and would like to learn more about the history of cremation and how it relates to modern cremation, check out Cremation Then & Now, a production of Undertaking: The Podcast, wherever you listen to podcasts. Cremation Then & Now is hosted by Barbara Kemmis, Executive Director of the Cremation Association of North America (CANA), and Jason Ryan Engler, CANA Historian. Find episode 408 for more on Cremation Societies and Memorialization. To provide some sort of structure, cremation’s earliest supporters often aligned themselves in Societies and Associations – which were fueled by the reformation of burial practices. Upon payment of their dues to their society or association, members were not only supporting the building of a crematory in their community, but they were also prepaying for their own cremation. Their membership also made them part of an important social group – meetings were often like those of other social and fraternal organizations – the only difference was that cremation was their theme. A particularly important method for early cremationists to get their message out was by publishing what has since been referred to as propaganda. Cremation societies frequently published various booklets and pamphlets which featured reasoning for choosing cremation over burial, locations of the crematories in the US, opinions of notable persons who supported the movement, and photos of the “crematory vaults” and urn selections. A cremation society in France created propaganda that included photos of bodies in various states of decomposition after burial. Many US crematories circulated this same literature, theirs showing the gruesome images along with photos of their beautiful crematories and columbaria on the facing page. Additionally, in the late 1800s, three societies published magazines for their members – The Urn (published by the U.S. Cremation Company in New York), Modern Crematist (by the Lancaster Cremation and Funeral Reform Association in Lancaster, Penn.), and The Columbarium (by the Philadelphia Cremation Society), all of which ceased publication by the end of the century. Poets and modern thinkers of the day often added their notes of support as well. For instance, the poet Arlo Bates lent his support of cremation when he wrote: Let me not linger in the tainted earth, to fester in corruption’s shroud of shame, But soar at once, as through a glorious birth clad in a spotless robe of cleansing flame. Then wrap about my frame a robe of fire and let it rise as incense censer swung; until in ether pure, it may aspire to greet the stars along the azure flung. And let me rise into a filmy cloud and touch with gold the amber sunset sky; or veiled in mist the driving storm enshroud both land and tossing main – as on I fly. Women’s suffrage supporter Frances Willard was also an ardent supporter of cremation. She stated: “I choose the luminous path of light rather than the dark slow road of the valley of the shadow of death. Holding these opinions, I have the purpose to help forward progressive movements even in my latest hours, and hence hereby decree that the earthly mantle which I shall drop ere long – shall be swiftly enfolded in flames and rendered powerless to harmfully effect the health of the living.” THE CREMATION ASSOCIATION OF NORTH AMERICAEarly on, cremationists and cemeteries who conducted cremations often struggled due to a lack of some sort of guidance and direction. There was no infrastructure or national organization to give this direction as there was in Europe where many of the crematories were operated by state and local municipalities. Dr. Hugo Erichsen, a physician in Detroit, Michigan, and founder of the cremation society there, changed that when, in early 1913, he issued an invitation to all American cremation groups to join and form a society with a national scope. He was successful in bringing 14 delegates of the 50 or so crematories in operation together under one roof and the Cremation Association of America was born. While Dr. Erichsen’s initial goal was burial reform, and for the first several years his focus was realized, the Cremation Association quickly developed into meetings of the businessmen who performed cremations in their communities – largely because the reform societies which built many of the early crematories in the country were taken over by them. The Association still thrives today and is unequivocally the source for cremation education, statistics, and information. The name was changed in 1975 to the Cremation Association of North America to reflect member involvement from crematories across the continent. CREMATION IN TRANSITIONThe modern Cremation movement in America sprang from a sanitary necessity; but over time the embalming process evolved into more common practice. This disinfection of the body, along with the advent of medicine into everyday life, the need for cremation as a means of purification after death dwindled. With sanitary concerns negated, the primary argument in favor of cremation was invalidated. New reasons to choose fire over earth needed to be enumerated, and with them, a new era in the history of cremation in America began.
We don't have time to question everything, of course, but I want to motivate you to question what you do and why you do it, and the impact that it has on your business. And—most importantly—the impact it has on your families. I am a second-generation funeral director and embalmer from a really, really small town in Indiana. I've been licensed since 2005. I grew up in the funeral home with no intention of going into funeral service. But, as I got to see my father and understand what he was doing, I knew what he was doing was important and I wanted to be a part of that. IS CREMATION THE ENEMY?One of the things I heard from my father was “We bury our dead and we burn our trash.” And, as a young man, I didn't understand that, because Dad didn't own a cemetery and he didn't own the crematory. So, I started questioning that. I thought, “What do you care? You want the phone to ring. You want to help a family.” But this was the mindset of so many funeral directors of that generation: “Cremation is our enemy. When a family says cremation, that's the only thing they want. That's it.” Those men lived in a time of cremation only, but from day one, that's never been my experience. So I questioned how we interacted with our families, and I wanted to get better. I wanted to get better because, as a young funeral director, you find yourself in awkward situations that you didn't ask for. Families love to ask questions—and we want them to ask questions. But when you're a young, ignorant kid you don't know what to do when you're put on the spot with a question that you don't know how to answer. I never had someone tell me, “When you get a question that you don't know the answer to, just say, ‘I don't know, but I'll find out for you.’” That makes someone feel pretty good. You're going to help them. You're going to find out – it may take you five minutes, it may take you more—but you're going to help. WHAT MAKES A GOOD FUNERAL DIRECTOR?We have made this unbelievable commitment that we are going to care for living and the dead, and we're going to do it simultaneously. As a young funeral director, I always wondered: what makes a good funeral director? And it's one of those things that is always evolving. I'm constantly adding to that amount of information that I have that helps me help families. And no matter how much knowledge we have about the funeral business or running a business or death or grief or all that stuff, what families really need is just another human being to listen. Another human being to be there, to support them and to support their decisions. We don't see that across all funeral service. can you do that?I am using a story I heard from someone who chartered a fishing boat. He mentioned that his boat captain was on the radio with other boat captains, and they were talking about where the fish are. They've all got paying clients. They all want them to have a good time. They all want them to fish. But these competing businesses are on the horn to each other, telling each other where the fish are biting today. Conversely, there's other captains out there and they're not going to talk to the competitors. You've hired them for a boat ride and you're going to get a boat ride. And that's all you’re going to get. But other businesses who are competing are out there trying to satisfy their clients. When it comes to funeral service, we may call a buddy for help. We may call a funeral home to help bring someone home. Yet, when it comes to service, a family walks in and they say, “Hey, I, saw this really neat thing on the internet you can do with cremated remains. Can you do that?” and I don't know about it. This happens way too much in funeral service where we say, “no, we don't do that here.” And we stop. We don't call out for help. We don't call out to figure out how to do it. Heaven forbid we tell a family, “we don't do that here, but I can find a place for you.” ARE CREMATION FAMILIES DIFFERENT THAN BURIAL FAMILIES?A buddy of mine was working at this funeral home. When someone came in to pick up mom or dad, they sat across the desk and “there's dad, thanks for coming in. Oh, sign here.” She was mortified that this was what was happening. So, she started to think a little bit, make it a little bit different, make it more of an experience. And she got in trouble. “What are you doing? We don't do that here.” Well, she kept doing it. She just made it a little bit different. I'd never thought about it. Never questioned it. It was just what we did. I think before I started using mom or dad or brother or whomever, it was “cremated remains. Here you go.” But, I started thinking about it and I was like, I can do better. As a funeral director, I do not want to treat my cremation families any different than burial families. Again, my family, we don't own a cemetery and we don't own a crematory, but I will do both for you, so we got to thinking. You never know what a family's going to value when they walk in the door. They'll walk in the door and they'll be like, we want a dinner, or we want a kegger. Some families want a funeral procession. Some families want pallbearers, and what’s the answer? You buy a piece of furniture. I was curious about this product: an urn, an arc, an urn caddy, there’s so many different names. I wanted one of these for years and years, but my father wouldn't let me do it. Finally he got older and stopped stopping me. So we got one, because I didn't want our cremation families to be cut out of some of the things that burial families get, and that some families value. Now, when it comes to cremation, you have all of the choices in the world. IS "WE'VE ALWAYS DONE IT THIS WAY" REALLY THE MOST DANGEROUS PHRASE IN THE LANGUAGE?How do we know it's the right thing to do? The key is to sit down and take the time. Think about it, question it, talk about it. When we'd go on a removal or bring someone into our care, we would get into the hearse afterwards, and we'd start to drive away. And I'd look over and be like, “All right, let's grade ourselves. How do you think we did? How did the communication go? How did the transfer go? Do you think we met their needs?” Didn't even know we were doing it, but we were trying to get better. If you're not even thinking about what you do, this business can be very routine. You show up, you walk in, you do your work, you go home. It can be that simple. But if your mind gets numb and you're not thinking about what you're doing and trying to improve, you'll never improve. Just because Dad's been doing it 60 years doesn't mean it's wrong. It may be the best way to do it, but until we test it out, we don't know. And I encourage you to talk with other people about it too. Get outside of your circle, your echo chamber. That is the key. WE CAN’T ASSUMEIf you asked me maybe right now, what else do I do? Well, when it comes down to it, all of this is caring for our families, listening to them, and empowering them to do what they need to do. We’re put out to be these money-grubbing, guilt-twisting professionals that will use that emotion to help ourselves. When, as we all know, that is the complete opposite of what we do. We will go the extra mile to help a family. You all do it. I'm not telling you anything you don't already know. We all work in funeral service. We are equals, but when we go home, all of us are the expert to our communities. Tell your story, tell people what you do, encourage them to have those conversations, be open and approachable. And that's how folks build trust with us. This post was excerpted from Brian Waters's session which kicked off CANA's 104th Cremation Innovation Convention this August 2022 in Atlanta, Georgia. There, he examined the why of our operations, the value our families are seeking and how we can grow as cremation providers. For more from Brian and the Atlanta event, check out Undertaking: The Podcast and his reporting from the CANA Convention.
With the 2022 Green Funeral Conference coming up soon, we wanted to entice you with five fantastic reasons you should attend. 1. MEET LIKE-MINDED PROFESSIONALS IN THE INDUSTRY Our industry is evolving, and it’s important to meet and speak with other professionals (like yourself) who want to position themselves to best serve today’s funeral family. This event brings together business owners, decision-makers, and other key people that understand the future of the changing funeral landscape. These people understand that ignoring the evolution of our industry is short-term thinking and leaves a funeral business vulnerable in the long term. The Green Funeral Conference brings together a tight group of individuals, and networking opportunities are built into the program. In addition to a full day and a half of educational sessions, there will be a welcome reception at the Sandia Resort, a cocktail reception at Passages International’s headquarters in Albuquerque, and more opportunities to meet and get to know your colleagues in other areas. 2. LEARN ABOUT THE LATEST IN GREEN FUNERAL ALTERNATIVES AND OPTIONS The speakers and panels that have been assembled cover a wide array of topics, including cutting-edge new processes like Natural Organic Reduction, the basics and specifics of actually conducting a green burial, a case study of a funeral home boosting their business by offering greener cremation options, and discussions on how to market to today’s environmentally aware audience successfully. Traditional burial has remained relatively the same for decades, but the non-traditional sector is constantly evolving. It’s important to understand the spectrum of green options available for burial, cremation, and scattering, as well as the “shades of green” in funeral options, and how to incorporate them into your presentation to families. 3. VISIT BEAUTIFUL ALBUQUERQUE, NEW MEXICO The desert Southwest is a striking place to visit. Our venue, the Sandia Resort & Casino, is a tribal venue on native reservation land nestled against the Sandia Mountains (named for their dramatic watermelon-pink color during sunset). Early mornings in Fall you can see hot air balloons accenting the sky and the Sandia Mountain foothills offer amazing views and hiking trails not far from the venue. New Mexico’s capital, Santa Fe, is one of the oldest cities in the country (founded in 1607), and the blend of Native American, Spanish, and Mexican influences is clearly evident in New Mexican architecture, food, and culture. Attendees will have access to the venue’s world-class spa, golf course, music amphitheater, and more! Don’t forget to ask for green or red chile with your meals, you won’t be sorry. 4. ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSIONS, PANELS, AND HANDS-ON DEMONSTRATIONS The size of this conference caters itself perfectly to a discussion-based, hands-on experience. There will be roundtable discussions where attendees will sit with an expert or presenter to discuss different topics in a face-to-face environment. We will also have hands-on demonstrations on practical topics, like how to wrap a body with a biodegradable burial shroud. Panels of speakers open up discussion-focused sessions, where participants can ask questions or bring up topics directly with the speaking experts. There is also value in seeing experts discuss the topics with each other, to better understand the different opinions, principles, or ideas within the industry, and how they can be applied to your business. 5. JOIN PASSAGES INTERNATIONAL FOR A COCKTAIL PARTY AND TOUR OF THEIR FACILITY Passages International is the largest supplier of green and non-traditional funeral options, from caskets for green burial to greener cremation options, such as bamboo cremation containers and biodegradable urns for earth or water scattering. Passages will be hosting a cocktail reception at their headquarters, not far from our venue. You will have an opportunity to tour the facility, enjoy drinks and hors d'oeuvres with other attendees, and to get your hands on biodegradable funeral products. We hope you’ll join us for the Green Funeral Conference 2022! Kilian Rempen takes the Green Funeral Conference stage to discuss strategies to speak to your community through social media, marketing and advertising, and public relations. Using social media, your web presence, and marketing is key to success in today's world, and we will cover how to use those tools to let your community know that you offer the funeral options that they increasingly are seeking. He's joined on stage with Elizabeth Davis, Vice President of Marketing for Passages International, Inc. and Katey Houston, Service Manager of Return Home. Enjoy the full spectrum of experiences at the Green Funeral Conference 2022. See what else we have planned and register to attend September 13-15, 2022: goCANA.org/GFC2022.
Plenty of associations are concerned about greenwashing. But with PR spin and lack of transparency, it can be difficult to know what’s greenwashed and what’s just plain green. So if you want to fight it, take a cue from the playbook of an association built on an anti-greenwashing mission. Since its inception in 2005, the Green Burial Council (GBC) has fought to bring greenwashing to light in the funeral industry. The association provides third-party oversight to ensure that natural burial options marketed as “green” are indeed environmentally friendly. “When [founder] Joe Sehee became interested in this movement, he realized there weren’t really any standards or ways to know what truly was green,” said John Niedfeldt-Thomas, leader of GBC International’s (the 501(c)(3) arm of the organization) education and outreach efforts. GBC went on to form its own standards. Its force has been felt in several ways, with successes such as legislation permitting eco-safe disposal methods and a rise in education about the impact of traditional burial and cremation. Consider these insights from Niedfeldt-Thomas on what associations can do to fight greenwashing—and how they can avoid doing it themselves. set the standardGBC has created a set of criteria as to what’s truly green in its industry and certifies organizations that meet those criteria. The organization arrived at these standards by consulting with experts on natural burials, looking at which methods, products, and materials lead to pollution and other land and water issues. GBC also took cues from trusted sources, such as green guides from the Federal Trade Commission. If there are no environment-related certifications in your industry, you can start forming criteria by doing the same: consulting with experts in your field. You can also approach regulators directly and push for environmental standards to be implemented, as GBC did with the FTC. When creating criteria, try to be as holistic as possible. “In the case of green burial, the full picture of environmentally sound practices is what counts,” GBC states in its handbook. “For instance, a casket made of organic materials may be green, but transporting it over 3,000 miles to its destination using fossil fuels and child labor to construct it is not considered green.” spread the wordAnother way to push green initiatives over greenwashing is to educate the public and other organizations about these standards and environmentally friendly practices. That way, an informed public can more easily spot flimsy assertions from organizations claiming that they’re green. Plus, it can help well-intentioned organizations avoid greenwashing by showing them how far they need to go to truly be environmentally friendly. Niedfeldt-Thomas said that GBC works to educate funeral directors and cemetery operators about what constitutes a green burial and the eco-conscious options available to them. BE TRANSPARENTWhen determining which organizations and products are actually green, prioritize transparency. What claims are they making? Where’s the evidence that they’ve followed through? Are they certified? If so, using what standards? It might be a red flag if an organization provides no proof that it’s keeping its promises. “Where greenwashing is most often manifested is vague words that are used by companies to talk about their processes or products,” Niedfeldt-Thomas said. This goes for your organization as well: In your environmental efforts, avoid greenwashing by telling the public what you’re doing, your standards, and how you’re holding yourself accountable. Be as specific as possible. This article originally appeared on AssociationsNow.com. Reprinted with permission. Copyright ASAE: The Center for Association Leadership (June 2022), Washington, DC. Two Board Members of the Green Burial Council take the stage this September during the Green Funeral Conference 2022. Rachel Essig is the Executive Director of River View Cemetery in Portland, Oregon which has been offering natural burial and funerals since 2009 and is a certified hybrid cemetery by the Green Burial Council. She’s joined by Jodie Buller, Cemetery Director of White Eagle, to talk about the spectrum of green funeral and burial service options, as well as some considerations for developing financially sustainable "green" business models. Darren Crouch is president and co-founder of environmentally responsible funeral product company Passages International, Inc., which is co-hosting the Green Funeral Conference 2022. Darren will take the stage to discuss sustainable products and fair trade as part of the Emerging Trends Panel with Lindsey Ballard of Ballard-Sunder Funeral Home on alkaline hydrolysis and Brie Smith of Return Home on Natural Organic Reduction. Don’t miss your chance to join these experts and learn more about how you can introduce green practices to your business. Learn more and register for the Green Funeral Conference 2022 in Albuquerque, New Mexico on September 13-15, 2022: goCANA.org/GFC2022. Michael Hickey is a contributor to Associations Now.
Published by ASAE: The Center for Association Leadership, Associations Now is the premier media brand covering all aspects of association leadership and operations, from governance and membership to event strategy and workplace management. Associations Now is delivered in multiple award-winning channels and provides real-world stories, innovative thinking, and practical, how-to content to help you turn ideas into action. ASAE and the ASAE Research Foundation work together to bring the most comprehensive collection of resources, events, and services to association professionals. ASAE members lead and manage trade associations, individual membership societies, and voluntary organizations across the United States and around the world. The ASAE Research Foundation’s portfolio balances future-focused programs with research studies designed to help professionals improve their work and their organizations today. |
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