Latest / The Growth Project / Episode 400: Special Live Recording – What Great Cultures Have in Common

Transcript

Episode 400: Special Live Recording – What Great Cultures Have in Common · The Growth Project

• 0:02
  You.
• 0:11
  Welcome to the Growth Project podcast brought to you by Atlas Fire. And for this one, this is not around this Thursday. No, thank you all for being here. What a great opportunity and privilege. Thank you for all the support over the years. And, unlike we ever start out to get to 400, I don't think we got past the first episode in our minds.
• 0:30
  But glad to be here and glad for all of your support. Yeah, I think it's more than just reflecting on your natural thing to do. Of course, on your on your career, for others to think back to. And so thank you started what was a large and I know you remember this, but we recorded episode one. It was in a little bit of a different.
• 0:48
  Yeah. Okay. So if you could picture a janitor closet is where it's like your, your ideal kind of like tornado shelter in place. Your room. That's where we started. Oh, yeah. It was, 2016 when we started dreaming and talking about this. I had somebody actually making flowers, said, hey, what was what was your vision for this? Did you ever, you know, what was the goal?
• 1:10
  And the goal was never about 400. The goal was how could we provide the information that we have to encourage people to impact people, to try to be relevant in their life? And at that time, it was still synergy groups where the clinical and assessment and how could we provide information to people that that maybe couldn't afford it or couldn't have access to us?
• 1:30
  Yeah, yeah, I think one of the things that I've loved on this, then even the first day, is it's one of the best vehicles we ever created to impact lives, people now. Yeah. Andy Rooney right. Thanks for being here today. But it's just a great way to put things in the hands of folks, for free
• 1:48
  it's very humbling to think that that our message and what we do really resonates.
• 1:54
  I was giving a talk not long ago, and I had a lady from Italy asked me, hey, do you think these principles are universal? And of course I'll put it back on her. And I was like, yeah, we think the human condition, the human experience is universal, that these concepts around being better pursue a better. It is not limited by your demographic or where you live.
• 2:13
  And I think that's what excites me about the podcast, is to think that people all over the world, think we have something to offer. And I think two minutes are coming before we jump into it is it's this is being tested in my mind to one of the things we believe in wholeheartedly of just when you feel like it or not, some BS show up with consistency.
• 2:36
  Give the best of you guys back, get a moment and just start stacking those on top of that. Yes, here we are four minutes later. And I think you, you create these things that works through that. Right? Consistency of action. It doesn't happen quickly. It doesn't happen easily. But I think you will. God, in moments like, is you just really, really grateful for what is materialize?
• 2:59
  Absolutely. I think we'll go back to the in the words of Kirby Smart. Right. What we try to live by, success comes with those who are too busy. You're looking for it? That I think we never thought about listeners. We never thought about downloads. We never thought about how many people is like, okay, if it impacts one person, then it's been a good day.
• 3:17
  And before we dive in, though, I think it's important to think about over the years. You know, I think we got to mention Corey Schaefer, the you know, who who worked for us for so long and was the first producer, I think you went out and did all the research on the first microphones. Connor Houston has been running the show here for a while and has done a great job.
• 3:37
  And I see so many people in the audience today. My family. Your family who have touched our lives, my man, Doctor Ron Reese in 2005 and nobody else believe I could start a practice. Someone to post, doc. And, I appreciate you so much seeing and believing that that we had something to offer back then. So just very grateful for all of you to be in the audience and grateful to all our listeners and grateful to you for the impact as well.
• 3:59
  Okay. So so this I it and I think, you know, as we were thinking about what are we talking about. Right. Were we done this 99 times. We're trying to really capture the right concept, right topic for the 400th.
• 4:16
  And so we really kind of leaned in sort of with something that I think most people I hope you it about and, and culture. I think a lot of you hear here today, you, you are really thinking about how do we create a culture that we want to create. And, he's always important. You start a conversation like this again.
• 4:37
  I wish we not I don't know, right. We're doing the best we can. I heard anything over the years about culture. Is this really difficult? And despite the best efforts, you to us an example. Yeah. And I think that's what one is just even what it is. Everybody talked about culture but I don't think it's clearly defined. And what are the variables.
• 4:54
  One of the things that that we don't take for granted is people inviting us in to be a part of their life, a part of their culture, a part of the process. And you get to learn by observing of what to do and what not to do. And so I think, you know, I love quote. And so Bill Walsh said, the culture precedes a championship results.
• 5:11
  Champions behave like champions before they're champions. And so what we want you to think about today as we present this, to think about what does this really mean to you and your organization and even for your family, you know, what's it feel like to be a part of your organization? What's it feel like to be touched by you and you're internally or externally?
• 5:29
  What's it feel like at home, and how do you, as a leader in that environment, create a culture where everybody feels they're accepted, everybody feels that they they belong and everybody has value. And I think that's what we want you to think about. So we did a podcast not long ago called the Success Audit. You know, kind of and so so how do you define success as one of our favorite questions.
• 5:50
  And we challenge all of us, ourselves included, to think about, hey, what's your metric and how do you measure up? And so as you hear this today we want you to think about your culture and and run it through that lens. These are some characteristics of great cultures, not exhaustive. And we don't have all the answers. How do you stack up and maybe what's something you can do differently going forward from our time together.
• 6:12
  Yeah. And agree. Definitely not exhausted. We made our best attempt to think back, not just on prior concerns, but also the opportunities that contributed to working in interact with industry, traveling, caching, and put our finger on what are the common threads seem to be what are they? So we want to do our best to highlight some of these, our best examples.
• 6:32
  And I think one of the things that we know to be true about culture is, although it's great to think about it is great to talk about it, it's really more about where to rank. Yeah. So shame. So couldn't agree more. We really challenged everybody, all of our listeners, to be thinking about how do I take this and drive into action to create change, to create growth.
• 6:52
  So, you know, as we think about, I mean, we start if your goal is to create,
• 6:58
  a great culture and people want to be a part of not just want to be a part of, but then also perform because those those things matter, right?
• 7:05
  Clarity is is non-negotiable, right? Why is that? Well, to me, clarity means so much. But at first my mind goes right to vision is it says in Proverbs where there is no vision, the people will perish. And so without vision, it doesn't inform your process, it doesn't inform your strategy, it doesn't inform how you go to market. It doesn't inform how you treat people.
• 7:29
  And so the vision has to match up, and it has to inspire you and your team before it inspires others. And I think that to me is where I go. I know we're going to talk about role clarity and clear communication and expectations, but my first thought is, hey, what is your purpose? Why do you exist? Why do you matter?
• 7:46
  Then we can figure out, okay, how does everything flow together? And I think to many companies and organizations, they get so focused on what they're doing, they forget why they do it. Yeah. And I think, you know, a topic that comes up a lot and I've seen people is, well, it's not so well. You should get people to get it.
• 8:04
  Talking about alignment. Yeah. I had alignment throughout the position. I couldn't agree more. But the problem though is had first. Yeah. Right. So when you lack clarity and then you're trying to create alignment, you might end up with it. The problem is people are aligned on a whole lot of different things. Yeah. And I think another problem with that you may as a leader have and I'm not seeing my wife over there.
• 8:27
  I'm, I'm guilty of this in my mind. What I think I'll say and what I actually say are two different things. So you may have it very clear in your mind of your vision and your purpose in the roles that everybody play, but then you don't give people a chance to speak into it, to have a voice in it, and then you don't communicate very clearly.
• 8:43
  It's not, hey, here's why we're doing this is here's what you have to do. And then people, there's no alignment because they aren't bought into the vision. They aren't bought into the purpose. Yeah. So when I think about like using a part of prostitute. Yeah, I see hundreds episodes. I know this is part of her skills that are in some of our families, like, every day, our listeners, they joined the football this morning when I comes on is like, wow.
• 9:10
  You know, it was not a cloud. It was not. Yeah. Not. Yeah. I'm not going to say anything.
• 9:20
  It is an example that I've been a part of and that, you know, he's using the project and talking about it. There's just such a high level of understanding and sales are. Yeah, not just who we're trying to be, but the bigger picture, what I would call kind of like strategic plan. The whole program. Like, we know the type of football we're trying to play.
• 9:43
  We know who does well in that system, where the type of coaches who do well within our system, you know, we talk about organization of the year 20. How is it for everybody? Yeah, that's absolutely true. But I think even within football in Herbie Douglas podcast, when we say something like it isn't for everybody, we know what that means.
• 10:02
  And the people who have said yes to the opportunity also, yes. So they understand what it takes and then they understand what are they willing to give up to be a part of this program? And I think as we kind of dig a little bit deeper, we hear a lot of organizations talk about we value people, but do you value the role that they play?
• 10:18
  So, so clarity means everybody has a role to play on the team and we value that role. And I see so many organizations get it wrong that they value the person, but they don't value the position. And so you minimize their contribution by the role that they play. And we see it all the time in teams. We see it all the time as an organization.
• 10:35
  And so that's part of role clarity as well as everybody knows, not only what role they're playing but what impact they have on the team. So what about this? I want to introduce this question, a topic that every organization is trying to figure out is capital. So what's the relationship that we've seen that people will start out with this answer to that definition of clarity and accountability.
• 10:59
  How understands human can be in on the one hand that can be your competitive advantage. On the other hand, yeah. To me, without clarity, people start assuming what role they're trying to play, and they're trying to live up to the expectations that are not clearly defined. And there's nothing more stressful than being held accountable to things. One you can't control, and two, you don't know what you're being measured against.
• 11:21
  And so now that accountability feels very personal. Instead of I'm holding you accountable, the things you can't control and the process now becomes very personal. And we start labeling that person instead of labeling that behavior. Yeah. Yeah. I think you guys, I think organizations who want to assess this, like you said, you have to work on this. One of the things that you got to do is not just ask the right question, but ask the right questions correctly.
• 11:47
  Yeah. So it can happen by to people will say something like this, do you understand what you're supposed to do? Do you understand what I'm saying? Do you understand the plan? No one wants to say yeah, yeah. Avoid the yes no question. Yeah. Oh, I love my job. Don't say that. You got to ask questions or something like this.
• 12:09
  To what degree do you understand what you're supposed to do? Yeah. Or where? There where there are gaps in your understanding of your expectation. Yeah. Even even better. Help me understand. What's your job here? Ask those open ended questions. A question that people are willing to answer. Yeah, because if you think about why is there more clarity and organizational?
• 12:29
  That's part of the reason why you ask people questions that they're reluctant to answer it because they're going to be judged and accountable for that, and they don't want to let you know that they don't know what you're talking about. So thanks. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So the takeaway vision and purpose. And then what's the role that each person plays to help that vision come to life.
• 12:50
  a final comment I would just say is, you know, leaders, most leaders in situations where you made your best intentions to hold someone accountable for something, it turned into a challenging conversation, and you got the other side of the conversation and realized you were actually the one who messed up because you had not done a good enough job establishing clear expectations, clear success metrics, all those things that came out as leader workplaces.
• 13:20
  You weren't trying to stay out of trouble. I yeah. And so but I guess your final word, my final word to me is what's the process? If you hold people accountable, the outcome, then your culture becomes very transactional and not transformational. I think that's part of that. If you clarify the process, what does it take to be successful?
• 13:38
  What are the things within your control? And then you get to hold people accountable to that?
• 13:42
  next I think what we have seen people have talked about plenty of promise. There has been the ability to turn values into behaviors.
• 13:53
  You know, you will visit very few organizations in the world when you walk in their lobby. You don't have like we are this, this. And we've seen these communities. Oh, we had in our old lobby like growth, resilience, innovation and teamwork grit. That's what it stood for. Back in the back in the day. So why is this so tough?
• 14:13
  What's more, because what I think about is how do you operationalize these core values and and I think you've done a great job with this. And where we've really focused over the years is more than just a word is like first you got to define what does it really mean. Like if growth is one of your core values or toughness is one of your core values, or connection is one of your core values, whatever that may be, what does that really mean to your organization?
• 14:39
  How do you put language around it? I think one characteristic of a great cultures, every kind of everybody speaks the same language. But then like, what does that really look like? Go back to accountability and clarity. If I don't know the values and what they look like, how am I living those out on a consistent basis? And I think, you know, we've said this before, if you are going to operationalize your values, you're better off.
• 15:03
  Yeah, yeah, I better when I think about private conversations where this is kind of the play is we become organizations on a project and we really need examples of this. And I'm equipped to lose Your Day is organization that I remember since I was a kid. Projects. It is really easy to have a long running operations to the culture.
• 15:26
  It's no surprise to me how language issues around the 70 years, I moved to office because there's so many great things happening. So he was. Yeah. Local company here, and, and, I remember how was it, you know, so much things the way them they were, they thought a lot about how do we take this work to us and really in how you're doing it.
• 15:51
  Yeah. I saw David Wise walk in on where he is right now, but talking about it harbor the trust. And I think good values, just like a good vision, serves you internally before they serve you externally. And I think everybody can we where we fall short on vision and values working together is so many people think external focused with their vision, their values.
• 16:12
  But but great companies like it impacts the people. It inspires the people that work for their company. Knowing, as we say, a lot of it. Does it inspire you or doesn't? It's not going to spur anybody else. So the values become, how do we put those in action? You know, another another quote I love vision without action is still just a dream.
• 16:32
  But action without vision is a nightmare. And so that action is how do we put those words into action, which goes back to accountability. Now I can catch people doing something right. Yeah. And I think this is morning to that. You've got to be careful because you can operate for a really long time without you said, and not even realizing what to do in our case with the right.
• 16:54
  So which these and we've talked about over the years I mean yeah. Right. So what was at what was one of our core values integrity.
• 17:03
  And yeah, where did that go. And there's plenty of smaller scale example. Well, that's a compelling case I think what's even more important, drew, how many times we work with and we it's like, what are your core values? And nobody knows what they are, so much less what they look like. Nobody knows what they are. And so it's it's a project that people think about that, hey, we got to do our vision and values, but we don't ever follow up with them.
• 17:26
  We don't incentivize one thing before we were joined Elliot Davis is we would incentivize people living out our core values. And so that would be part of their compensation was, hey, how are you living these out on a consistent basis, not only at work, but at home and in the community. What does that really look like? And so you're going to get what you incentivize.
• 17:47
  And so what's really important to you that we want you to act like it. And I think to me there's when I know who I am and what I believe and and those values, what they look like, then I and I have confidence to live with that. I think there's freedom and there's you have the ability to take risks because that's your foundation.
• 18:05
  that was in addition to just what got us together, just alignment around, not just certain guys that are taken very seriously. Yeah. And really cared about what that looks like. And so I have to say, one of the common that would be better is one of the places you see where they go wrong over the years.
• 18:21
  This is trying to steal too big. Yeah. Yeah. You're so much better off having a list that you get really, really good at is everyone's had an experience before. We're going to, hey, we're going to do this, this indie brainstorm thing. We're going to get on board and you kind of have all these great values, the great. Right.
• 18:40
  But the problem is good luck. During that time, I'm smiling so much because you always want to limit people to for until Kirby said he wanted to five. And so we came we came up with five.
• 18:51
  I think one of the greatest testimonies of people putting values in action is you and Kirby. Long ago, I don't know what year that was.
• 18:58
  2019, 2018 I was 24, 2020 when you know, you had lost to or almost got beat by Cincinnati, you were struggling with, hey, I got some ideas. I would help text Kirby, do not text Kirby. And this is part it could lead right into a learning organization. He said, hey coach, I think I got some thing for you.
• 19:18
  And he's like, when can you be here? And you hammered out even more so than vision drew. You hammered out the values. And what do they mean? What they look like. And you want to see values in action. It's how you recruit. It's how Georgia practices. It's they're reinforced on a consistent basis. And I think that has been as critical to their success as anything else.
• 19:41
  What does something we got, Rob Bowers being like that but I agree. Yeah. It's been yeah, I think the key there was you and we used the players issues. Like when you ask someone, who are we? Yeah, everybody had an answer. The idea. Yes. And so that was the key is like we had to get alignment around incentives.
• 20:05
  And then you start out sure that way. Yeah. And and just it also goes well for your family. What are the values that you really believe in in your family. And how are you talking about those. How you communicating those like out like you talk about them all the time and you look for evidence in ways whether you're facing having success or whether you're facing adversity.
• 20:24
  You got a chance to reinforce the things that really matter on a consistent basis. Or as you turn the page on that and getting into another just vital pillar here that is hard to do, is hard to do, right. So prioritizing feedback and learning. But how am I supposed to do that when we go in, you know, we got the support or you got here number or like, how can I prioritize not measured growth.
• 20:55
  But people work in learning growth when we get numbers. Yeah, I think the paradigm we've tried to disrupt is that definition of success is about hitting a goal or achieving, you know, winning a national championship or whatever that is. And so if we can say success is really just pursuing that goal, the worthy pursuit of a worthy goal to me is do we really believe that better never rest?
• 21:18
  Can we be better than we were before? I think that to me, when I think about creating a learning environment, how do we create from Carol Dweck s work around a mastery learning environment? That is, Churchill said, success is never fatal and final. When failure is never fatal unless you allow it to be. There's opportunities to learn and grow in every opportunity, and I think that's what the best organizations and that's what great cultures do.
• 21:42
  Yeah. When we were talking about this morning, I was thinking about people who come on the podcast and talk about this. I thought about, on mercy. Everybody, she was with ESPN, CBS, SC 20 plus years for our journalism. And she talks about how, really throughout her career, how she would always be asking the producers for like the film on segments that she things like that.
• 22:14
  She might watch it and watch it, watch it. And I'm thinking, well, I guess I was, people would do that. Right? Let me think about think about film review in sports, of course, all the time. But she was diving in on just watching herself do segments on TV, which was super impressive. You know, I think that's to me, you know, and people ask us, who do you love working with?
• 22:37
  And one characteristic of companies that people like is a sense of curiosity, right, can get can I be curious about my work and be curious about others, about how I can improve? I think that's the piece that is missing so often. I think sports does this really well. You know, the film doesn't lie there. There's a constant evaluation of how we performed.
• 22:57
  Now. I think it's important to, as we're talking about this, as you always say, people love feedback means I love to hear what they do. Well, yeah maybe not, but but but evaluation versus criticism is what we're really talking about. And and great cultures are they let people separate who they are from what they do I like that.
• 23:13
  So so we're attacking the problem and not the person. And that criticism is, is pretty much a personal attack and it limits creativity. It stifles growth, it creates resentment, it creates frustration. That to me is when you know you've master, that you create a culture of accountability through a culture of learning and feedback.
• 23:33
  how do organizations find out where they are on this?
• 23:38
  What are your thoughts about AI for an organization that wants to know more about how they're doing and in the prioritizing feedback and more about how you.
• 23:50
  Well, I would guess most organizations or I know don't do it well. And so I think the questions we want you to ask and even just think about, well, well, what is your process of giving and receiving feedback. How do you schedule what we call courageous conversations? And most of the time, feedback? Instead of catching people doing something right, rewarding effort feedback becomes catching people doing something wrong.
• 24:15
  And we don't we don't have the positive affirmation to go with the negative. And so what does it feel like to be coached in your organization? What's it feel like to be corrected in your organization? What's it feel like to be communicated with in your organization? Those are the questions I think you got to really ask. And is that feedback proper feedback?
• 24:34
  We know one just a neurobiology of it helps create oxytocin. The bonding hormone helps produce testosterone, which is performance enhancing hormones that are naturally produced versus negative feedback. And criticism produces cortisol, which is a stress hormone. And so part of that evaluation is how do people respond to feedback that are they motivate or they inspired? Are they asking for it?
• 24:58
  I think that to me is what what I think about for an organization to ask. And I think leaders got to ask this question. I heard you six times in the years about, winning because of the thought of that. Oh, yeah. Well, I know you probably have some trouble with yourself a few years in the year. Yeah.
• 25:15
  And I think that's the question. Are your team or your players or are they winning because of you or in spite of you? And I think if we don't have a method to evaluate, even the way we coach and even the way we give feedback, that we assume that what we're doing is working. And a lot of times your team is performing in spite of you.
• 25:36
  They're overcoming your negativity, they're overcoming your criticism. They're overcoming the way you coach them. Yeah. Instead of really, are your words like, it's hard to build people up if you're constantly breaking them down? Humble actions last year go tumbling investors mad at Jordan volleyball and he always talking about how his his internal wage was if my players were coaching me.
• 26:03
  Yeah. Because it never works, you know. And I think that's real I think it's a valuable lesson for everyone. I think the gut check for me is especially what's it feel like to be connected to me, to be loved by me, to be married to me, to be coached by me? I think that's the question we all gotta ask, because what we think we're good at, we probably aren't good at.
• 26:24
  People avoid tough conversations. And I think one other metric to talk about drew, and we got a lot of leaders in the organization at the top of the food chain in this room and listening a proper organization. Feedback is all the way around. Right. And and we believe the more power your position gives you, the less you need to assert that power.
• 26:45
  But it's really easy. The higher you go, the less likely you are to invite feedback, the less likely you are to get feedback. And so done. Well, there's a method of feedback and evaluation that happens in every organization. You know what to think about. We have not had them on the podcast, but Ed Catmull and Pixar and how do they create these great movies and how do they?
• 27:06
  We used to teach it unlocking creativity. And the first thing they do, there's four factors to it, but one is they remove the ego from the room that that you walk in with a posture of humility. And curiosity is like, how can I grow? How can I learn? And we ask everybody the organization versus just we think the people that are important.
• 27:27
  And I think this is a chance for all of us to grow. Yeah. I think one of the it's interesting, I've seen you some years, especially CEOs of organizations. And, I think there are many reasons. I know they have some value in that, but I think one of them is like your willingness to come through because, you know.
• 27:48
  Yeah, exactly. And if people are always incentivized to tell the truth, the people on top of food chain. Yeah. So this that's been a huge difference maker in the work you had. And I appreciate that. It's got me in a lot of trouble over the years as well. That's why I was laughing. But I think you got to tell the truth.
• 28:06
  This is another piece that tell the truth in a way. People can handle the truth. Yes, but but you have to have go back to a value. You have to build the relationship in order to tell the truth. You can't just assume that trust and you can't. Yeah, yeah, I've learned that lesson as well. That's another story for another day.
• 28:23
  So so I think think about your organization. What's it how do you give feedback? Are you really a learning organization? Have you developed a mastery learning environment? Do you really believe that? Better never rest. That effort equals success. That mistakes are an opportunity to learn. Or if you really create this performance learning environment, they're it's about people's performance.
• 28:44
  And you value the people who win on your organization and you value the outcome more than the process. Like that inhibits growth, that inhibits one's ability to learn. If I'm being judged and held accountable to something I can't control and I perform really well, I think these are the questions our players I ask all the time. The people love you for who you are.
• 29:03
  They love you for what what you do and this is part of that process.
• 29:10
  So some others, that is definitely a word that pops up in all industries. All the is that, you know, how do I how do I get a team who, really, really cares about what they're doing. Right? So I think and we've seen this in plenty of examples where if there's a concentration of ownership at the upper tier, the highest tiers of the organization, and that degree of emotional investment and buying isn't all, oh, yeah, throughout the organization, which end up where there's really stressful people that are stressed out, tired, fatigued, frustrated people who don't understand why.
• 29:52
  That's why don't they do this and that. But the problem is they don't have shares. You know, you're doing all the work. Yeah. You've got all your own work. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's a classic myth. And I think ownership, the best teams I've been a part of is everybody takes ownership. Yes. What you just said at Duke is like, it's not so much the player.
• 30:10
  I mean, the coaches, it's it's a player, a group of players that have a shared commitment to shared ownership. What have they done? They bought into the vision. They understand the values they're holding people accountable. They're given the feedback. Then the coaches get the coach and the leader gets to lead. If you're having a coach values an effort, you aren't coaching your sport.
• 30:30
  You aren't leading people in a in a positive direction. And so this right here and that's that's what's been so awesome to watch players and owners and people take ownership of that process. Oh I look I remember certainly have heard, received and heard from you over the years. And and it does not matter when been on this new team on the recent stuff doesn't matter but the best teams that you were.
• 30:55
  Oh yeah. Have you had a hand in when Clemson's when national championships were, when I wasn't there. I'm you. But I remember hearing a lot about like this is yeah let's go back to the glory days I appreciate that. That's a good yes a good time to think about. Let us let her reminisce on the good, the good old days.
• 31:13
  I'm I, I appreciate you bringing that up. Right. We do want to have our dreams grow in our memories, but it may be good to appreciate those memories. And I appreciate you saying that, but I do think back. I think the one maybe you're talking about, that I talk about all the time is 2016. We had that great run, won the national championship, 2017, another quarterback situation.
• 31:36
  Like, there wasn't a whole lot of hope or expectations of that team and wound up being 12 and zero. And I remember we're down at South Carolina and and Hunter Renfroe, on the fourth quarter looked at me. It's like, I know you guys talk all the time about believing and just believing yourself, but I never thought we would be back here.
• 31:53
  And I said, this is an amazing win when you kind of just buy in when when you believe in yourself and the people you surround yourself with. And he said, yeah, I got to give credit to our defensive line. And now those are pretty good players. Dexter, Lawrence, Cleveland, Farrell, Alston, Bryant, Christian Wilkins. He said they set a standard that everybody else had to live up to.
• 32:13
  So in the spring of 2017, in the summer of 2017, they they refused to let it be anything than anybody's best. And that internal ownership that set the foundation for the great run in 2018. Yeah, I think, that's what people really want and need to create. I think you need to give off a numbers game like football's a perfect example.
• 32:38
  There's a lot of guys on the team and you to see a team meeting and you walk in the front of that room, there's 200 people in that room. And so like if you're if you can't count on a critical mass of people having distributed inertia throughout that in this case that team, you don't stand a chance.
• 32:54
  You know I think we go back to roll clarity of number 200 on the team doesn't feel valued doesn't know their role, doesn't know their contribution. They aren't going to take ownership. And it's so easy to talk about like renting versus owning. And I know we've talked about this a lot, but just think about if you own your house versus renting your house, like if you just rent it, you're just you're just showing up your you're an invested, you're trying to make things better.
• 33:19
  You're just there for a short period of time. And furthermore, when you have problems with the house, who do you call? You call the owner. And I think that's a piece of what the research say. It's about level of engagement. In today's world today, only about 32% of people are engaged in the work, meaning they aren't taking ownership, they haven't bought in, they aren't invested.
• 33:40
  They aren't committed to living out the vision, the values of the organization. They aren't committed to getting better with that, or they're choosing, if you think about it in terms of the organization was shot and paying attention to that, what are the key questions to be about? You know, where I stand on this. That's when you sound like when a problem pops up is the mentality we have a problem, or is the mentality when we have a problem.
• 34:02
  And I'm going to figure out this because are two very different ways of thinking. And I think you got people that are trying to actually find solutions as you mentioned. Yeah. And it's so easy to get an organization and, and complain about what you don't have. Yeah. And instead of we talk about gratitude being so important that that's an important core value.
• 34:23
  But but we see so many organizations even leaders organization like, hey, if they would only fix this, if they would only do that and they aren't looking in the mirror and say, what's my responsibility? What's my contribution, how am I going to make this situation better? It's easy to kind of point the finger and make excuses and just complain.
• 34:43
  Instead of finding a way to improve things. And just one of the five I'm sharing this is in order to do this well, you also need to understand. You have to know your team and know your people and recognize strengths. And if you are in the past and you're empowering them, allow them to work within the wheelhouse. Yeah, it makes it a lot easier to take ownership for this or that way.
• 35:04
  Or maybe because I feel like I was supposed to be. This is how I'm like, yeah, go about your clarity. Yeah. But if I like and I know it fits well with our next one around, if I don't feel like I belong, if I don't feel I have value, if I don't feel I'm making a difference, if my work is not meaningful, I'm not really going to take ownership.
• 35:21
  You know, go back to clarity of expectations and defining success. I'm just going to bring you to tell me what to do and what that creates. Instead of empowering people, you enable people. And if you enable people long enough, it creates a sense of entitlement that they think, this is what I deserve. This is how you should treat me.
• 35:37
  And they aren't invested in making it better. Our Secret Service great cultures have cracked the code on this. This is also not easy at all. But how do you create an environment in a sustainable way where you are truly balancing value, prioritizing not just one of these two, but both of these two? And it's easy to get it wrong.
• 36:04
  Right? We have many different ways, Andrew. We've been beating this drum for over 20 years around. How do you find that harmony between one work in their life, between well-being and performance? And I think so many people in this performance based world, the challenge we have is how do we live and work in this performance based world, not be defined by it?
• 36:25
  That that we believe who you are is more important than what you do. But if we don't have the other things in place, we just tend to value outcomes, right? And I think to me, if we don't kind of find that balance, we don't find that harmony that that all these other factors are secondary. So you think about the way you miss the mark on this, right?
• 36:46
  So you've got high care. Most standards. You know we call that the land of rainbows and unicorns. Yeah. We're like you want to get on a soapbox for me or start talking about people's self-esteem esteem? No, no I'm not. Yeah, I'm getting serious on this one. Yeah yeah yeah yeah. So high high high standards. So we've got high, high care low standards.
• 37:07
  That's not. Yeah. That's comfort, that's complacency. But then we've got high standards low care. Where does that high stress. Right. And then and then even furthermore like go by the disengagement. You got low standards and low care. You have apathy and apathy is the opposite of love not hate. And so so many people are not invested in the organization because they feel people don't care about who they are, and they don't care about what they do.
• 37:33
  So I remember that conversation you had, when they did this. Oh, yeah. So great. Guys, the joke is always in the fastest way to become millionaires, to get a billionaire investor in. That's how they figured it out. You are the fun guy. You fine. You got you deliver that. You. You've always wanted to be the fun guy.
• 37:52
  You just. I'm sorry. I'm so proud of you.
• 37:54
  Yeah. So what I love about southwest is one, you talk about clarity of what their purpose was. You know, you love telling that story about the hey, we're going to have great food on this airline.
• 38:03
  This guy spent a lot of time and got in front of herb gathering. Herb said, well, how does that help us be like, you know. Yeah, yeah. It's like it doesn't we aren't doing it. But they were so great because here's what we know about a great culture is you talk to Dave. Really? You know what it really feels like to to be cared for, to be listened, by like.
• 38:22
  And so they live that out. They empowered their people. If you know, southwest, everybody in the organization was empowered to solve a problem. It was. No, let me check my manager. Oh, would you like to talk to my supervisor? They they felt empowered and they cared about people and they cared about their performance. But the people I think was greater than their process.
• 38:42
  It was greater than their system. And so that created a different kind of culture. And it flowed, as you always say, it's not going to happen through you unless it first happens within you. And so when people feel that they care, what are they able to give to others, to your clients, to your customers are able to exhibit that kind of care and attention as well?
• 39:02
  Yeah. I think there's just, they it's interesting how many different books I've read where they have shown up as like, future case study. Yeah, yeah, but different offered different approaches to different concepts. You had some of you come back, some of those came back to all the things Southwest Airlines got right. Yeah. So each of as we're thinking about this, I also think you got to think about this culture of belonging.
• 39:26
  You know, we were created to be connected, to other people into something greater than ourselves. And so when you get this part right and balance may lead you down the wrong path to me, balance. I always feel like I'm out of balance, like I think about work life balance. But to me, the harmony that we talked about is how do we find that relationship?
• 39:42
  And sometimes we get it right, sometimes we get it wrong. But to me, if you created a culture of belonging that people feel like they matter and you care about more than just what they do. And I think that's where a great culture is really get it right. Yeah. And I think just it's okay to, like we've had plenty of people on the podcast as leaders who struggle with having high expectations right there.
• 40:08
  They almost have an internal apprehension of how do you manage that? Well, it's like you should be doing that. Like you should have citations and there is a way for these things to coexist. But that's the challenge. That's the challenge is that you figure out how to make those letters such that you've got a chance to pull it off.
• 40:27
  Yeah, I think we get so caught up in the performance of it that that even though we believe in our process, even though we know you do these common things in uncommon ways, you get a chance as George Washington Carver to command the attention of the world. It's easy to measure performance. It's easy to measure outcomes, it's easy to measure wins.
• 40:44
  And losses. It's hard to measure the other, you know, and and what do you talk about more in your organization? Do you talk about people? Do you talk about what's important to them and what they value and what their strengths are? What their gifts are, is are they doing work that is meaningful? Do they feel connected? They feel loved, they feel cared for?
• 41:00
  Or do you talk about hitting your number or you talking about the outcome, or you're talking about winning and losing? And I think that gives you an inside of your culture audit. Hey, one of the things you talk about the most and, and part of this is people probably don't know us well, but I know you're pretty competitive and I know I'm highly competitive.
• 41:18
  It's not about are we in it to win it. If we're in it, we're in it to win it. It's how we win. And we believe people are our greatest asset.
• 41:29
  Are some you, master fish over here? Couple of practical, concrete things I think will be valuable for listeners. Should be thinking about simple. Simple take away. Would be taking stock outdoors and just do doing your own self-assessment. Basic 1 to 10 letter high. Yeah. How don't know. How do I as a way your leader and your people might be using organization.
• 41:51
  How do you feel like your organization's doing across these five categories. Don't limit it to math. I would highly recommend you also collect feedback from other people innovation people that are maybe below you. An organization chart. People love your initial chart, but get some good quality feedback on how to both you and others think you might be doing a series.
• 42:11
  Yeah, and. But don't ask a question if you're willing to do anything different either. Like it's better not to ask the question and then then just say, hey, like we wrote, but then not put it into practice, not put into action. And so just keep it simple. It doesn't have to be complicated. Now the answers can be complex, but by just asking the question and asking people, hey, what do you think?
• 42:34
  You talk about getting ownership and buy in and appreciation. Just a perception that you care what people have to say can go a long way in helping you build a better culture. Yeah. Or it can be a general term that you do. You say, yeah, if you just ask the question, then you're like, we're going to do it this way anyway.
• 42:49
  Yeah. Another great operation there. Okay. How do we and I don't know, you know, usually it comes naturally here. We got however many people in the room, so to me, final thoughts, I go back to culture, and it's something that we talked about all the time, but we still haven't mastered. And we think about intentional effort.
• 43:11
  What does it really feel like to be a have a great culture and more importantly, as a leader, what kind of culture do you want to be a part of? And when there's a huge gap in our level of self-awareness, there's a huge gap between the culture we think we have and the culture we really want. I think the challenge for all of us today is, what are we going to do to help build that?
• 43:28
  What's one thing you can walk away with from today's conversation to help you build a great culture?
• 43:34
  ask yourself the question if you take the time you have the urge to be the the ornament, or it might be, if you move the needle in just one of those areas, what can impact of that in so many ways, in terms of, the internal pulse dynamic, your team in terms of bottom line and both of those are okay, but where do you really see a value and impact.
• 43:57
  So you should be aware institutional of like me
• 44:01
  thank you for listening. I guess that's how we would wrap it up and, appreciate everybody's support here today and appreciate everybody who's listening.
• 44:08
  Yeah. Thanks so much.