The COVID-19 pandemic changed our relationship to work. We’ve seen some of it in our language: quiet quitting, remote work, the Great Resignation, etc.

But the changes are deeper, and as my friend Dan Michelson pointed out in his new book, Holy Shift, pandemics have always changed the relationship between employee and employer. He looked back at the Bubonic Plague and the Spanish Flu, discovering that both catastrophic events radically transformed the ways that people worked and lived.

According to Dan, the shift we’re in the midst of right now is even bigger. And the companies that will win with people, just like those who won after past shifts, are those who adapted to the new reality rather than fought to go back to the old ways.

And although this book starts with a history lesson, much of Dan’s prescription for leaders comes from his personal experience leading companies and original research done for the book.

It was the personal lesson that was the most painful. Dan was CEO of a private company that employed 500 people. His focus on culture led the company to industry-leading employee engagement, which plummeted in the midst of the pandemic.

This book contains what he learned the hard way and the five shifts that leaders need to make in order to win with people. They are:

1. Shift from Culture as a Tactic to a Strategy
2. Pivot from Bring Back to Bring Together.
3. Migrate from Macro to Micro.
4. Move from Managing to Coaching.
5. Evolve from Evaluation to Conversation.

I want to look at the third shift, from macro to micro. Dan explains that culture at the macro level – our company vision, mission, and values – while important, is only experienced by people occasionally. But the micro culture – how I work and interact with my team and, especially, my manager – is something we experience every hour of every day.

For years, we’ve known that the customer experience must be individualized. Why would we think it should be any different for the employee experience? Businesses that have a great experience for every employee, must focus as much on manager training as they do on the overall experience – because the relationship with the manager accounts for 70% of that experience.

Dan’s book comes at an important time and can be used by any business to create a playbook for moving forward in the new world of work.

Don’t wait. Get a copy, read it, and make a Holy Shift to win with people.