PSYCHOLOGICAL SAFETY THROUGH THE EAT MODEL: A LEADER'S ROADMAP

In my recent conversation with Donald Thompson for WRAL TechWire, we explored the profound role of psychological safety in today’s workplace. For me, the discussion reinforced just how vital this idea is—not just as a feel-good concept, but as a business imperative. In the EAT Model—Engage, Adapt, Transform—psychological safety is not an afterthought. It is a core driver of how leaders create resilient, innovative, and high-performing cultures.

Donald noted that, in a time when trust in institutions has eroded, employees often trust their employers more than they trust media or government. That’s a remarkable shift—and a responsibility. Leaders have become stewards of trust, which means our ability to create a safe environment for ideas, questions, and even dissent is directly tied to business performance.

That’s Engage—the first pillar of the EAT Model. Engagement here is more than “communication” in the corporate sense. Rather, it is focused on creating authentic, human connections that give employees permission to share their perspective without fear of retribution. Without that foundation, psychological safety can’t take root.

But psychological safety isn’t static. This is where Adapt comes into play. Too often, adaptation is seen as something purely external—adjusting to market shifts, competitive pressures, or new technologies. In the EAT Model, adaptation is both external and internal. Leaders must continuously recalibrate their own behaviors, language, and even emotional intelligence to reinforce safety.

But how do leaders operationalize this idea?

• Responding constructively to mistakes

• Actively seeking feedback on how safe people feel

• Making visible changes in response

Don’t forget, though, the organization’s role in creating psychological safety. Organizations must evolve policies and practices to reflect new realities, thereby shifting from one-way communication to genuine dialogue, for example, or embedding inclusive decision-making into daily routines.

When leaders commit to engagement and adaptation over time, transformation occurs. This is the third pillar of the EAT Model: cultural change that becomes part of an organization’s DNA. In practice, transformation looks like higher retention, more innovation, and stronger collaboration. But at a deeper level, it’s about creating an enduring culture of trust and learning. Then, psychological safety becomes a cultural safety net when the organization needs resilience, like weathering economic downturns, facing competitive disruption, or even experiences societal crises. As Donald pointed out, psychological safety is not only the right thing to do, it’s a competitive advantage.

From my perspective, applying the EAT Model to psychological safety gives leaders a clear roadmap:

1. Engage with empathy and authenticity

2. Adapt with both structural and personal change

3. Transform by embedding safety into the culture

The result is a workplace where people feel safe to speak up and are motivated to contribute their best thinking. This is an important outcome. In an era where the quality of ideas can determine the survival of an organization, that’s more than a nice-to-have. It’s a necessity.

The Leadership Value Proposition

The beauty of applying the EAT Model to psychological safety is its scalability. It works in small teams, global corporations, and even cross-cultural contexts where trust and open dialogue are harder to build. For leaders in marketing, communications, and digital industries—where creativity, speed, and collaboration are paramount—the EAT Model offers a lens for diagnosing cultural barriers and a roadmap for removing them. The return on investment is tangible: stronger employee retention, better decision-making, and a workforce that innovates faster than the competition.

Leaders who want to operationalize psychological safety—and reap its competitive benefits—should explore how the EAT Model can be integrated into their leadership practice. By focusing on engagement, adaptation, and transformation, you don’t just create safer workplaces—you create stronger, more resilient organizations.

THE EAT MODEL: UNDERSTANDING CELEBRITY BRANDING THROUGH A CULTURAL LENS

Culture is not a noun — it’s a verb. Something that happens to us, and that we, in turn, help create.

When I began studying American culture decades ago, I noticed something: most scholars and cultural commentators described popular culture as if it were an object. A thing you could hold up and label — a Picasso painting, a baseball card, a Marvel comic book.

While this approach had value for cataloging and analysis, it missed the spark. The real action of culture is not static; it’s dynamic. Popular culture is not just the object itself — it’s the rush of feeling when you hear a song for the first time, the charge of energy in a crowded theater as the lights dim, or the sense of belonging when you put on your favorite team’s jersey.

Culture is not a noun — it’s a verb. Something that happens to us, and that we, in turn, help create.

This shift in perspective — from static to dynamic — led me to develop the EAT Model: Engage, Adapt, Transform. Initially born from my work as a cultural historian, the model captures how culture is lived and experienced, and how brands — particularly celebrity brands — generate lasting meaning.

The EAT model captures how culture is lived and experienced, and how brands — particularly celebrity brands — generate lasting meaning.

Engage: Creating the Spark

Every enduring celebrity brand begins with Engage. Engagement is the spark — that first connection that makes someone stop, look, and feel something.

This isn’t simply visibility. True engagement hits on an emotional frequency. Think about Robert Downey Jr.’s emergence as Iron Man. He wasn’t just another actor in a superhero role. His personal story of struggle, redemption, and charisma aligned perfectly with the Marvel cinematic moment. Fans weren’t just buying tickets for Iron Man; they were buying into the Downey comeback narrative.

Starbucks achieved something similar when it became more than a coffee company. In my research with Kaitlin Krister Schrock, we coined the term radical sociodrama to describe how Starbucks acts as a stage where customers perform aspects of their identity. The company went far beyond selling coffee. Starbucks created a lifestyle cue, a way to project taste, refinement, and belonging.

Engagement, then, is more than grabbing attention. The focus is on connecting in a way that makes the audience feel seen and understood — the necessary ignition point for everything that follows.

Adapt: The Bridge Between Engagement and Transformation

Most people think “adapt” means simply react to change — adjust your schedule, update your branding, follow a trend because it’s gaining attention. That’s part of it. However, in the EAT Model, Adapt is much richer and more integrated.

Adapt is the bridge between engagement and transformation. It’s where what you have connected with externally meets the shifts happening internally — in your mindset, values, and identity — and the two reshape each other.

This is the visible, situational adjustment:

• A musician evolves their sound to reflect changing cultural tastes.

• A company updates its messaging in response to a social shift.

• A public figure refines their tone after a major life change or cultural event.

This kind of adaptation is responsive, but rooted in what came before — the surface expression of something deeper.

This is where Adapt becomes transformational in its own right:

• Reframing perspectives — The change outside prompts a shift in how you see the world.

• Integrating new meaning — You update your internal “why” to align with new realities.

• Evolving identity — You absorb external input in a way that reshapes who you are and how you’ll approach the future.

Robert Downey Jr.’s post-Iron Man career illustrates both. Externally, he capitalized on the Marvel platform with smart role choices. Internally, he reframed his public identity from “Hollywood cautionary tale” to “creative force and philanthropist,” weaving his hard-earned credibility into every project.

Starbucks, too, has continually adapted both externally and internally. It didn’t just localize menus overseas; it rethought what “the Starbucks experience” meant in cultures with different coffee traditions, integrating those insights back into the brand’s global identity.

Adapt is not “bend so you don’t break.” It’s “absorb, integrate, and evolve,” so that the transformation that follows is authentic, sustainable, and resonant.

Transform: Moving From Brand to Cultural Force

The third stage — Transform — is where a brand transcends category and becomes part of the cultural fabric. This is where a celebrity or brand moves beyond selling products or performances to influencing values, beliefs, and identity.

For example, Oprah Winfrey transformed from talk-show host to cultural institution by consistently connecting her brand to personal growth, empathy, and shared experience. LeBron James transformed from basketball superstar to social advocate and education innovator.

But transformation has a double edge. When celebrity branding becomes about visibility for its own sake, it can erode trust, polarize communities, and hollow out the very connections it set out to build. The EAT Model challenges us to ask: What are we transforming into? Are we creating deeper connection and shared meaning, or reinforcing division and performance over substance?

Why the EAT Model Matters in a Celebrity-Obsessed Age

In today’s world, celebrity branding is not limited to entertainers or athletes. Social media has turned “being a brand” into a cultural expectation. CEOs, educators, nonprofit leaders, and even students are urged to curate their personal brand.

There are benefits to this — clarity, connection, and influence — but also costs, including self-censorship, constant performance, and the pressure to measure worth in clicks and likes.

The EAT Model offers a roadmap for navigating this landscape. It’s not a checklist, but turns thinking about branding and thought leadership into a mindset that recognizes cultural connection as a living, participatory process.

Applying the EAT Model

Whether you’re a celebrity, an emerging entrepreneur, or someone simply looking to build a meaningful personal presence, the EAT Model offers three clear imperatives:

1. Engage — Spark emotional connection that makes people feel seen.

2. Adapt — Balance external responsiveness with internal recalibration, so your evolution is both strategic and authentic.

3. Transform — Create meaning that lasts, shaping not just transactions, but the cultural conversations people care about.

When applied with intention, this framework can help avoid the traps of superficial branding and focus instead on the power of authentic cultural influence.

The Cultural Historian’s Edge

Why approach celebrity branding through a historian’s eyes? Because history reveals the patterns: the way branding has evolved from product marks to cultural symbols, and how engagement, adaptation, and transformation have driven that evolution.

History reveals the patterns: the way branding has evolved from product marks to cultural symbols, and how engagement, adaptation, and transformation have driven that evolution.

From the rise of early consumer icons to global mega-brands, the same cultural mechanics repeat. Understanding these changes allows you to see where branding is going next, not just where it has been.

The EAT Model is my way of translating decades of cultural insight into a tool for today’s world — one that helps us connect, evolve, and lead without losing sight of the values that make connection meaningful in the first place.

For more on the EAT Model and celebrity branding, listen to “Theories of Celebrity Branding” wherever you like to listen to podcasts. Tune in here.

3 REASONS YOUNG PROFESSIONALS SHOULD READ THE AUTHENTIC LEADER

The workplace is undergoing constant change. As a result, young professionals are stepping into roles that demand adaptability, resilience, and a strong sense of purpose. This type of people-first leadership is at the heart of authentic leadership.

The Authentic Leader: The Power of Deep Leadership in Work and Life is a guide for anyone who aspires to lead with integrity and impact, no matter what stage they are at in their career stage. Here’s why young professionals should read this book and the lessons they’ll take away.

1. Leadership Starts Before the Title

Many young professionals assume leadership begins with a promotion, but The Authentic Leader teaches that leadership is a mindset, not a job title. Leadership starts with self-awareness, responsibility, and the ability to positively influence others—whether you’re managing a team or contributing as an individual.

Lesson Learned: Great leaders take ownership of their work, build trust, and inspire those around them long before they reach the executive suite. By embracing leadership principles early, young professionals set themselves apart and create additional opportunities for growth.

2. Authenticity Builds Long-Term Success

In a world that rewards personal branding and social media presence, it is easy to fall into the trap of trying to be who you think others want you to be. The Authentic Leader emphasizes that real success comes from being authentic, aligning your values with your work, and building trust through transparency.

Lesson Learned: The strongest leaders—now and throughout history—have been those who remain true to their values, communicate honestly, and foster real connections. Young professionals who develop these habits early will build lasting credibility and meaningful careers.

3. Emotional Intelligence is the Key to Influence

The workplace is filled with diverse perspectives, challenges, and moments of uncertainty. The Authentic Leader highlights the power of emotional intelligence in navigating relationships, resolving conflicts, and creating positive workplace cultures.

Lesson Learned: Young professionals who practice empathy, active listening, and emotional self-awareness will be better equipped to collaborate, lead, and create a lasting impact in their industries.

Final Thought

Leadership isn’t something you wait for over days, months, and years. It is your responsibility to develop the necessary skills every day. The Authentic Leader provides the tools and insights young professionals need to become confident, purpose-driven leaders in a fast-changing world. By understanding these principles early, they can build careers that are not only successful, but also deeply fulfilling.

Are you ready to take the first step toward authentic leadership? Pick up The Authentic Leader and start shaping your leadership journey today.

The Authentic Leader by Bob Batchelor

WHAT DID STAN LEE DO DURING WORLD WAR II

A Fact-Filled, Frequently Asked Question by Stan Fans Everywhere!

Pearl Harbor brought the war to America. Winning hinged on creating an interlocked infrastructure to support the troops. Businesses of all sizes rallied to the cause. Democracy hung in the balance!

Although still a teenager, Stan Lee enlisted on November 9, 1942, just as the US faced its first skirmish on the coast of North Africa. He took the Army General Classification Test and scored high, qualifying for the Signal Corps.

The war was good for comic books. In 1943 more than 140 were on newsstands, reportedly “read by over fifty million people each month.” In 1944, Fawcett’s Captain Marvel Adventures sold 14 million copies (up 21 percent). Superhero titles drove sales, but publishers also expanded into humor, funny animals, and teen romance. Captain America remained Timely’s most popular series.

“How would you like my job?” Lee asked his friend Vince Fago.

Veteran animator Fago had worked on Superman and Popeye for Fleischer Studios. Battling with Disney, Max Fleischer’s shop differed by focusing on human characters, such as Betty Boop and Koko the Clown, rather than talking mice, ducks, and other anthropomorphic figures. Martin Goodman paid Fago $250 a week.

The fighting overseas was heavy stuff; readers yearned for lighter comedic fare. Fago specialized in funny animals, so Timely used Disney as a model, essentially transforming into Disney-lite. They published amusing animal tales, such as Comedy Comics and Joker Comics. Lee had concocted some of these characters, like Ziggy Pig and Silly Seal (co-created with artist Al Jaffee, the future Mad magazine illustrator). Fago estimated that each comic had a print run of about 500,000. “Sometimes we’d put out five books a week or more,” Fago remembered. “You’d see the numbers come back and could tell that Goodman was a millionaire.”

Goodman also wanted to gain female readers. Miss America, a teenage heiress who gained superhuman strength and the ability to fly after being struck by lightning, first appeared in Marvel Mystery Comics #49 (November 1943), with Human Torch and Toro on the cover thwarting a Japanese battleship. In January 1944, Miss America became a title character. However, when sales dropped, the next issue was delayed until November, publishing as Miss America Magazine #2. A real-life model portrayed the character in her superhero outfit. For the relaunch, Fago and his team gradually eliminated superhero material in favor of topics deemed more appropriate for teen girls.

***

Lee went through basic training at Fort Monmouth, an enormous base in New Jersey that housed the Signal Corps. It also served as a research center – radar was developed there and the handheld walkie-talkie. In subsequent years, they would learn to bounce radio waves off the moon.

Stan Lee with his beat-up jalopy

Stan learned how to string and repair communications lines – a path to combat duty (like his former boss Jack Kirby). Army strategists knew wars were often won by infrastructure – the Signal Corps kept communications flowing, but they could barely keep up with demand. Other training centers opened at Camp Crowder, Missouri, and Camp Kohler, near Sacramento. By mid-1943, the Corps’ consisted of 27,000 officers and 287,000 enlisted men, backed by another 50,000 civilians.

Pearl Harbor heightened concern that German subs or planes might mount a surprise attack during the cold New Jersey winter. Lee patrolled the base perimeter, claiming the frigid wind whipping off the Atlantic nearly froze him to death.

The beachfront burden ended when Lee’s superior officers discovered his work in publishing. They placed him in a special outfit producing instructional films and other wartime materials. Lee wrote fast and in a breezy style that recruits and trainees could comprehend.

The Army liked these traits too. At the Training Film Division, based in Astoria, Queens, he joined eight other artists, filmmakers, and writers to create public relations pieces, propaganda materials, and information-sharing documents. Education was critical for the war effort. Imagine, millions of young Americans were enlisting and they collectively had about an eighth grade education. They needed to learn how to fire machine guns, run offices, and build bridges, barracks, and other essentials necessary to win the war. They needed training materials that they could understand and put to immediate use.

The Army purchased a large building flanked by rows of tall, narrow windows at 35th Avenue and 35th Street. Colonel Melvin E. Gillette commanded the efforts. Inside the Army built the largest soundstage on the East Coast, enabling filmmakers to create a variety of military settings and scenes. The old movie studio (built in 1919) soon rivaled the major Hollywood production companies.

Prop department at the Long Island facility

“I wrote training films, I wrote film scripts, I did posters, I wrote instructional manuals,” Lee said. “I was one of the great teachers of our time!” The Signal Corps group included many famous or soon-to-be-famous individuals, including three-time Academy-award winning director Frank Capra, New Yorker cartoonist Charles Addams, and children’s book writer and illustrator Theodor Geisel, who the world already knew as “Dr. Seuss.” The stories that must have floated around during staff meetings!

Lee took up a desk in the scriptwriter bullpen, to the right of eminent author William Saroyan – at least when the pacifist author visited the office. Saroyan, who had won a Pulitzer Prize (but rejected it) for his play The Time of Your Life (1939), usually worked from a Manhattan hotel. Lee and the others, including screenwriter Ivan Goff and producer Hunt Stromberg Jr., earned the official Army military occupation specialty designation: “playwright.”

As home front efforts intensified, Lee traveled to other bases, essentially crisscrossing the Southeast and Midwest. Each base had a critical need for easy-to-understand manuals, films, and public relations documents. Stan wrote about using combat cameras, caring for weapons, and other topics he knew little about. In these situations, he utilized a familiar motto – simplify the information. “I often wrote entire training manuals in the form of comic books. It was an excellent way of educating and communicating.”

One post took Lee to Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indiana, just northeast of Indianapolis – a jarring locale for a New York City native who had not ventured outside the city. He worked with the Army Finance Department, which struggled to keep up with payrolls. Watching the wannabee-accountants march, Lee noticed they lacked vigor. He penned a song for them, inserting new lyrics over the famous “Air Force Song.” The peppy tune included memorable lines, like “We write, compute, sit tight, don’t shoot,” but it improved morale.

Stan used humor to help the men absorb the complex procedures. “I rewrote dull army payroll manuals to make them simpler,” Lee remembered. “I established a character called Fiscal Freddy who was trying to get paid. I made a game out of it. I had a few little gags. We were able to shorten the training period of payroll officers by more than 50 percent.” He joked: “I think I won the war single-handedly.”

“I rewrote dull army payroll manuals to make them simpler. I established a character called Fiscal Freddy who was trying to get paid. I made a game out of it. I had a few little gags. We were able to shorten the training period of payroll officers by more than 50 percent...I think I won the war single-handedly.”

— Stan Lee

Lee moved to another project, calling it “my all-time strangest assignment,” creating anti-venereal disease posters aimed at troops in Europe. Sexually transmitted diseases had plagued armies throughout history. American leaders considered the effort deadly serious. Despite implementing extensive education campaigns, the military still lost men to syphilis and gonorrhea. The British – less willing to confront the taboo epidemic – had 40,000 men a month being treated for VD during the Italian campaign.

Military leaders went to extreme measures to thwart STDs, including the creation of propaganda posters showing Hitler, Mussolini, and Tojo deliberately plotting to disable Allied troops via disease. Many of these images, such as the ones famously created by artist Arthur Szyk, depicted the Axis leaders as subhuman animals, with rat-like features or as ugly buffoons.

Unsure how to combat the scourge, Lee promoted the prophylactic stations set up by the armed forces. Men visited the huts when they thought they were infected, which involved a series of rough and painful treatments. “Those little pro stations dotted the landscape,” Stan said, “with small green lights above the entrance to make them easily recognizable.” He wrestled with different taglines, ultimately hitting upon the simplest: “VD? Not me!”

Lee illustrated the poster with a cartoon image of a happy serviceman walking into the station, the green light clearly visible. Army leaders liked its simplicity and flooded bases with the posters. Ironically, the print may have ranked among Lee’s most-seen, yet also the most roundly ignored.

According to lore, the other “playwrights” couldn’t keep up with Stan, forcing the commanding officer to order him to slow down. While it is difficult to quantify the importance of the films, posters, photos, and training aids the Signal Corps produced, analysts determined they cut training time by 30 percent. Signal Corps efforts also provided from 30 percent to 50 percent of newsreel footage for movie theaters, which kept the public informed. Lee, Capra, Geisel, and the other Army “playwrights” did vital work.

Lee used downtime to keep his fingers dipped in Timely ink and his pockets filled with Goodman’s money as a freelance writer. With the extra money, Stan purchased his first automobile for $20 – a 1936 Plymouth with a fold-up windshield. Stationed near Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, the unique windshield allowed the warm Southern air to blow in his face as he cruised the back roads of tobacco country.

No matter where the Army sent him, Lee received letters outlining stories from Fago every Friday. Stan then typed up the scripts, sending them back on Monday. In addition to working on comics, Lee also helped out with the pulps. He wrote cartoon captions for Read! magazine, including this short ditty in January 1943: “A buzz-saw can cut you in two / A machinegun can drill you right thru / But these things are tame, compared— / To what a woman can do!” The accompanying drawing shows a plump woman feeding her bald husband – chained to a doghouse. The ribald humor fit within Goodman’s magazines, filled with sexist overtones and racy photographs.

Stan also wrote mystery-with-a-twist-ending short stories, similar to the ones in Captain America. In “Only the Blind Can See” (Joker, 1943-1944), the gag is on the reader, who eventually realizes a supposedly blind panhandler (assumed a phony) was telling the truth. Written in second person so Lee can speak directly to the reader (addressed as “Buddy”), one learns that the down-on-his-luck beggar had been too prideful. The truth comes to light when a speeding car hits the blind man. These short stories served as training for the science fiction and monster comic books that Lee would write after the war.

Stan’s afterhours writing for Timely went largely unnoticed by his superiors, but once got him arrested (in typical Lee madcap fashion). One Friday a bored mail clerk overlooked Stan’s letter, reporting an empty mailbox. Lee swung by the closed mailroom on Saturday and spied a letter in his cubby – with the Timely return address.        

Fearful of missing a deadline, Lee asked the officer in charge for the letter. The harried officer told Lee to worry about the mail on Monday. Angry, Stan used a screwdriver to gently loosen the hinges and freeing the missive. When he realized what Lee did, the mailroom supervisor went berserk, reporting him to the base captain. They charged Lee with mail tampering and threatened to throw him in Leavenworth prison. Luckily, the colonel in charge of the Finance Department intervened. In this instance, Fiscal Freddy really did save the day!

***

Stan’s signature and a quick roll of his ink-stained thumb across the Army discharge papers made it official – in late September 1945 Sergeant Lee returned to civilian life. Practically before the ink dried, the 23-year old roared off base. His new black Buick convertible had hot red leather seats, flashy whitewall tires, and shiny hubcaps – a noticeable upgrade from the battered, $20 Plymouth.

Lee received a $200 bonus (called “muster out pay”), given to soldiers so they could jumpstart their post-military lives. Half went into a savings account and Lee pocketed the rest. The Army had allotted him $42.12 to get back to New York City from Camp Atterbury in central Indiana, about 50 miles south Fort Harrison.

Excited to get back to the Big Apple, Stan joked that he “burned my uniform, hopped into my car, and made it non-stop back to New York in possibly the same speed as the Concorde!” The editor desk awaited in the new headquarters on the fourteenth floor of the Empire State Building. Lee zoomed off on the 700-mile trip to the Big Apple.

Stan Lee: A Life by biographer and cultural historian Bob Batchelor

JIM MORRISON ARRESTED -- AGAIN

With Miami Indecency Trial Looming, Jim Morrison Arrested on Flight and Faces Federal Charges

Jim Morrison couldn't stay out of trouble, especially when actor Tom Baker was instigating. They got really drunk and rowdy on a flight to Phoenix to see the Rolling Stones, but instead, got arrested and in serious jeopardy when charged with felony offenses.

Jim Morrison -- Arrested Again

Between March 5, 1969, when acting Miami police chief Paul Denham took warrants out on Jim, and the start of the trial on August 10, 1970, the federal government, the state of California, and the state of Florida tried several legal maneuvers to get the Doors front man to submit. At the same time, Jim’s attorney, Max Fink, fought these efforts, including filing several motions to dismiss the case.

"Too High in Sky" -- Jim Morrison Arrested & Jailed in Phoenix

While the wrangling sped along, Morrison’s personal life continued to unravel. He was arrested twice more in that seventeen-month span, first in November for causing a disturbance on a flight and then later the next August for public drunkenness in West Hollywood (when a sixty-eight-year-old woman found him sleeping on her porch and called police). According to Ray Manzarek, "Between Miami and Phoenix, Jim was facing a maximum of over thirteen years in prison."

"Arrested here" -- Morrison Faces Federal Offense

"Between Miami and Phoenix, Jim was facing a maximum of over thirteen years in prison."

— Ray Manzarek

For more great stories, interesting analysis, and an in-depth look at the Doors and Jim Morrison, check out Roadhouse Blues: Morrison, the Doors, and the Death Days of the Sixties (Hamilcar Publications)

Roadhouse Blues by Cultural Historian Bob Batchelor