What If Organizations Became Unreasonable About People?
An Unreasonable Organization goes beyond policies, perks, and performance metrics. It intentionally creates moments where employees and customers feel deeply seen, genuinely valued, and personally cared for.
The Core Principle of an Unreasonable Organization
The difference is not necessarily money. It is intentionality. An Unreasonable Organization asks better questions: What would make this person feel deeply seen? How do we create moments employees tell stories about for years? How do we celebrate humans, not just performance?
Most organizations operate transactionally.
“You work. We pay.” The relationship is functional, measured, and often limited to output, compliance, and expectations.
Unreasonable Organizations operate relationally.
“You matter here.” The relationship is built on dignity, care, connection, appreciation, and the belief that people do their best work when they feel valued.
What Makes an Organization “Unreasonable”?
Being unreasonable does not mean being careless, wasteful, or unrealistic. It means refusing to accept cold, transactional culture as normal. It means designing experiences that remind people they are more than their job title, productivity level, or customer number.
Unreasonable Care
They notice life moments, personal milestones, grief, stress, wins, and transitions—and they respond with warmth.
Unreasonable Celebration
They celebrate people regularly, specifically, and sincerely—not just when someone retires or hits a major metric.
Unreasonable Belonging
They create environments where employees do not have to earn their humanity before receiving respect.
Unreasonable Consistency
They do not leave culture to chance. They systematize care so that kindness becomes part of the operating model.
Ideas That Help Organizations Become Unreasonable
Small moments can create lasting stories. The goal is not extravagance. The goal is to create meaningful, repeatable moments of care that make people say, “They really saw me.”
Life Moment Gifts
Send a thoughtful gift basket when an employee has a baby, gets married, adopts a child, buys a home, or walks through a major life transition.
First-Day Family Note
Send a welcome note not only to the new employee, but also to their family, thanking them for supporting this new chapter.
Stay Interview Rituals
Do not wait until exit interviews to listen. Ask employees what keeps them, what drains them, and what would make their work more meaningful.
Manager Memory Bank
Encourage managers to remember appropriate personal details: favorite snacks, hobbies, birthdays, family milestones, career goals, and preferred recognition style.
Unexpected Appreciation Days
Create surprise moments of gratitude where leaders personally thank teams with handwritten notes, small gifts, or public recognition.
Grief and Hardship Care
Build a compassionate response system for employees experiencing loss, illness, family crises, or personal hardship.
Customer Story Moments
When customers experience something meaningful, personalize the follow-up. Send a note, make a call, or create a small moment they will remember.
Milestone Maps
Map the employee journey from candidate to alumni and identify where the organization can add moments of care, clarity, celebration, and connection.
Employees who feel deeply valued are more likely to extend that same care outward.
Unreasonable care is not just an employee experience strategy. It becomes a customer experience strategy, a retention strategy, a leadership strategy, and a culture strategy.
The Unreasonable Organization Framework
Organizations become unreasonable when care moves from random acts of kindness to intentional systems of belonging.
Notice
Pay attention to the moments that matter in employees’ lives and work experiences.
Name
Call out the specific value, contribution, struggle, or milestone you are recognizing.
Personalize
Make the response feel human, specific, and connected to the individual—not generic.
Systematize
Create repeatable rhythms so care does not depend only on one naturally thoughtful leader.
Share
Tell stories that reinforce the culture and show what the organization values.
The Business Case for Being Unreasonable
When organizations genuinely love people well, they often see stronger retention, deeper trust, healthier collaboration, greater discretionary effort, better customer experiences, and a culture people want to talk about. The unreasonable organization does not treat care as a soft extra. It treats care as infrastructure.
For Employees
- Greater sense of belonging
- Higher trust in leadership
- More meaningful recognition
- Lower emotional disengagement
- Stronger connection to purpose
For Customers
- More personal service experiences
- Greater loyalty and advocacy
- More memorable brand interactions
- Stronger emotional connection
- Stories customers repeat to others
Ready to Build an Unreasonable Organization?
Start by choosing one employee moment and one customer moment this month where your organization can go beyond expected service and create a story people will remember.
Start With One Moment