So why does Blodgett uses humor?  At her core, she believes that humor is an invitation.  She used it at Bare to invite employees to feel at home at the company and to take risks and engage with customers.

To foster this invitation, Blodgett incorporated humor into onboarding new employees.  Among other things, she hosted cocktail parties quarterly at her home where she brought together new hires and tenured employees, and let the fun and bonding begin through storytelling.  For example, she asked employees to tell a story about themselves they had never shared before.  “It takes some getting used to in the beginning; but once people start talking, they can’t help smile and laugh. ”

Blodgett says dancing at Bare Escentuals was also an invitation.  (Yes, we are back to the dancing - because really, wouldn’t we all like to see certain people in our office bust a move?)  The dancing invited people to relax, settle in and listen more attentively “even when the news wasn’t great, everyone was feeling the same vibe.”  And, for the record (because there must be a record about this somewhere), Blodgett was boogying around furniture before Ellen DeGeneres did it on her talk show.

When Shiseido acquired Bare Escentuals and it was time to announce the transition, Blodgett knew that humor was needed to make Bare employees feel invited into the bigger company.  One small challenge: Shiseido’s CEO, who only spoke Japanese, was prepared to give a formal speech in a fancy suit, and he certainly wasn’t planning on kicking off his shoes.  This could have started off the relationship between the two companies with a  culture clash.  But Blodgett prevailed upon the CEO to switch his getup to a T-shirt with unmistakable, bold Bare branding. She recalled, “This was a very big deal.  We were doing him a favor. He came with a translator and even showed some levity in his speech.  Any nervousness by the company was relaxed a bit.”

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