• Chief Love Officer.

    Posted on November 29th, 2010 by and currently 12 commenting.


    I am repeating a photo I’ve used before from my friend Libby Williams photo blog. It was taken in my sun room last year around Christmas time. Still makes me smile.

    I’m big believer in the power of love.

    I’ve often said that Brains on Fire is not a book, it’s a love story. What we’re preaching from the rooftops and to anyone who will listen is really quite simple:

    Love is a circular transaction. Love the people who love you and they will love you back.

    So last night, propped up in bed reading. I stumbled on an article by Chip and Dan Heath (do you know how much I love them and their shiny brilliant insights) on Fast Company’s website.

    Great article     BTW. Read it.

    One set of words in this article caught my eye and got stuck in my head and my heart.

    Chief Love Officer.

    Hmmmm. Don’t you love that?.

    In the example that Chip and Dan sited, a Chief Love Officer was assigned to NetApp’s two biggest enterprise clients (Yahoo and Cisco) to study and customize a better product for each company, one that addressed these large enterprise client’s pain points. Then NetApp could standardize those customized products and sell the to other large enterprises. They were, in essence, side by side co-creating with their clients. And fueling a better product.

    Funny, how that seems to work every time.

    Long after I had moved on to other late night excitement, like finishing the laundry and changing the sheets, those simple three words “Chief Love Officer” kept rolling around in my head.

    And it got me thinking, what would be different in corporate America if most companies had a Chief Love Officer? What if a CLO was as common as a CFO.

    In my mind, a Chief Love Officer would be someone whose key role in the company is to love out loud. Listen with a helping heart. Celebrate when an act of love is observed, internally and externally. Someone whose entire job is centered around a desire to find and ease the customer’s pain, to make things really easier. Simpler. Someone to celebrate and cherish the love letters a company gets. (Do you know where your love letters are right now, who keeps them at most companies and do they get read out loud? )

    I basically see a Chief Love Officer as someone who wakes up thinking about how to inspire and reward their company’s biggest fans. And better yet, someone to send love where there is hate.

    Hmmmm.

    Maybe there should be less “social media” jobs and more “Love Department” jobs.

    Isn’t that all any of us need and want? More love. Isn’t that why we rant and rave and complain about airlines and restaurants and things that let us down. We just want to feel loved when we’re disappointed. I see that being the role of the CLO and his assistant love spreaders.

    What do you see as the job description for the CLO?

    Happy Monday.

    If you are reading this now, know. I love you.

    Because I do. I love you for taking time out of your busy day and getting all the way to end of this blog post. For commenting once and while. For the occasional thoughtful, private email with a suggestion to make our blogging better (I am seriously working on those typos). For encouraging us. For debating with us. And if you are client, for hiring us and believing in us.

    I really do.

    Stay close. This year is almost coming to an end. And I see 2011 shaping up to be a really amazing year for us all.

  • Bobby

    Always refreshing to read, something to start the week out great! Have a great week. CLO…has a nice ring to it. :) ~br

  • Julie Finlay

    A good way to describe advocacy. Thanks for nudging my brain with this. This is a keeper.

  • Amy

    I can tell you’re working on the typos. Thank you. :)

  • http://www.grasshoppermower.com Ray

    This is a great concept described convincingly. So many small companies here in the Midwest still view social media as an annoyance (believe it or not) and put low priority on it. How much better off would these companies be with a CLO who embraced the challenge of motivating the company’s biggest fans and converting the haters into fans as well? A fun, fulfilling, dignified approach to social media – and broader company management.

  • http://artsappeal.blogspot.com David Zoltan

    I *love* the way you think, Robbin. I’ve been advocating something similar, a Director of Experience Management, for arts companies to transform how we interact with our patrons. This is a beautiful post. Thank you.

  • http://brainsonfire.com Robbin

    Thanks for your comments. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE hearing what you think. Let’s start a LOVE movement in corporate America.

  • http://graceysomers.wordpress.com Gracey

    Wow. This is so incredibly inspiring. the wheels in my mind are turning so fast it unbelievable. What if we lived our lives this way? What if along with our regular job title, at the bottom of everyone’s cards it said “Love Officer”? Work would be so much enjoyable for everyone. I think I might have to start working towards this at work. Thanks for the challenging thoughts!

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  • http://www.mshare.net/blog Nate

    Chief Love Officer? I want that title. I love the idea, and I think this is the future of business, without a doubt.

    Excellent post (first time visitor). You can bet I’ll be back.

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  • http://www.szczenieta24.turek.pl Noah Grundy

    Thanks smoking the knowledge.