Latest / Steve Azar's Resonance: A Podcast for Leaders, Unpacking the Power of Song, Silence and Strategy / Resonance Season 3: Wisdom From The Frontline For Leaders

Transcript

Resonance Season 3: Wisdom From The Frontline For Leaders · Steve Azar's Resonance: A Podcast for Leaders, Unpacking the Power of Song, Silence and Strategy

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: This is Resonance, the podcast with leaders that unpacks the power of song, silence, and strategy.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_01: We believe the great leadership begins with deep listening, not just to others, but to the still small voice within.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's not just about being a successful leader, it's about being soulfully aligned as well.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: In a world moving fast, resonance invites you to pause and reconnect with purpose, people, and possibilities.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: We'll dive into some cool stories, celebrate with friends, and dig deep into the music too.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_02: Cause song has a way of saying what words cannot alone.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_01: So whether you're leading a business, a team, or just trying to lead your own life with more meaning, this is Resonance.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_01: Resonance, Resonance.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_01: Hey everybody, welcome back to Resonance the Podcast.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Mike Farrell, and I'm here with uh my buddies, Steve Azar, the legendary Mississippi musician, philanthropist, and entrepreneur, great cook, and all kinds of fun stuff.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: And of course, Randy, the Professor Harrington, the future strategist, brilliant.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_01: People will disagree with you on that one.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just watching the look on his face when I'm not sure if that was Heartburn or what, but anyhow, it's great to be back here on another episode of uh season three of Resonance.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: And uh today we're gonna talk a little bit about uh what happens on the front lines, and especially when leaders don't listen to what happens on the front lines.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna I'm gonna relate a story.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: I had a had a minor surgical procedure on Monday, and as I was sitting in the post per pre-op room getting ready to go for this thing, a nurse was talking to me about the fact that they had just gotten into this, uh fairly recently gotten into this new surgery center.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_01: And everything was new and updated and all this kind of stuff.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: And and she said it was interesting though when they first came and and had the plans.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: They had, of course, the architect and you know the project manager and all this kind of stuff, and everybody's got it.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_01: And nobody bothered to consult with any of the nurses on what this surgery center was going to look like.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_01: And she just so happened to get a chance to see the plan and took one look at it and said, uh, folks, there's a little bit of a problem here.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: You've got two pillars in the middle of the hallways, and there's absolutely no way we can get a hospital bed around those pillars as we're moving people back and forth between post-op and pre-op and surgery.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: So something architecturally uh beautiful or something.
• 2:52
  SPEAKER_01: Right, yeah, exactly.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: And she showed me which pillar it was, and I'm thinking, no, you're not gonna get a bed around that one, you know.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: So they had to go back to the drawing board and figure it out.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: And and it's interesting because when she brought that up, I remember reading a story a while ago, and I think it was originally a hospital in London that were having efficiency issues and all kinds of things going on in their operating room.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the either a doctor or a nurse happened to be watching a Formula One race event, and they started watching how the pit crew operated.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: And now everybody has very specific jobs and the way they move around the car and all that kind of stuff.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: And they started studying what this pit crew did and how they did it.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_01: And as they did that, they realized we've got this operating room all goofed up.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody's doing the same thing, touching the same thing, pulling the same plugs out and in and all that kind of thing.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: We need to restructure this whole thing like a like a Formula One racing pit crew.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, and since then, there have been a number of hospitals that have examined this process that both NASCAR and F1 use uh to figure out how to build this procedure around the operating room so that everybody's in the right position.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: Even there's even a trauma care center, I think, in Boston that does this where everybody's got a very specific role when somebody comes in and everybody does one particular thing, and that's their job, uh, without having to move the patient around at all.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: So uh so it's really interesting.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: But again, I think he gets to this whole idea of the fact that how many times uh do leaders make decisions without ever consulting the people that are actually doing the work?
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: And um and I know Steve that you've probably seen a few of those things in in the music business where you know somebody somebody makes a decision to do something without ever considering uh, you know, maybe the the band or or the the sound or any of those other things.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: You just kind of, you know, whoever it is that makes that decision does it without thinking through all that.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's been first of all, back up for a second to the the whole car analogy and NASCAR and and IndyCar and Formula One, you imagine all these guys, they're all pulling data.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_02: And and obviously that helps the driver, when it's all said and done, to become a better driver.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_02: And he's telling them things too.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_02: So the communication between every single person on the crew all the way up, I don't know how that they discuss that.
• 5:23
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously, they'll probably not everybody's everybody's reporting to somebody, but at the end of a race, I'm sure they get together after uh the adrenaline's gone and they have to face the reality of what's going on here with everything, from the tires to the, you know, so could you imagine them not communicating and you never get better?
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_02: So um in our business, you know, for me, you know, I look back at during the Napster time, and we've had this discussion before, so I'm not not gonna get my blood pressure up.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna actually, Randy, I promise.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna just gonna say this.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_02: This is interesting because as an artist, you you're not you're your own person, you're your own business entity, but you're under a label.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_02: And when you're under a major label, there's a head guy.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_02: Well, head guy would make the comment, he goes, Hey, you're you know, when you you they didn't realize that when I we got signed, we were just going back on the road.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_02: I'd been playing my whole life.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_02: So just getting a record deal was just only gonna fuel the fire that was already lit from my past, you know.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_02: So we were gonna be working a lot.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_02: And so he made the comment.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_02: My goodness, y'all are working a lot.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_02: And I said, Yeah.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_02: He goes, Well, this is what I did before.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_02: I just, you know, wanted to get this record, get this part of it done and and get back to work and you know, write these records and all that.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway, he said, let me know if you're in a market when you're when you're in a market, if you don't see product.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_02: Like, and so my brother would go into stores.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_02: Walmart at the time was, you know, best buy, all the places that sold records, and he wouldn't see anything there.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_02: And we had one of the biggest hits in the land at the time.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_02: And so he was going, uh, he goes, Well, uh, but but yet we're selling, right?
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_02: We're selling out all our venues.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_02: And everybody knew all the words.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_02: Well, we found out in Abster because a lot of those kids in college were all downloading stuff for free.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_02: So that was one thing.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_02: We would tell him about that, and he would say, eventually started getting upset.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_02: I don't I don't want to hear another word from y'all.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_02: Like, so he told us to tell him, and and we were telling him there's no product there, but he was complaining that there were any sales, and then guess what?
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_02: He had fired his head of sales uh right before my record came out, so I didn't really have one.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_02: I had uh uh somebody that wasn't prepared.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_02: And so Walmart didn't have any records in the stores for the first two weeks, and Walmart sold more records than all of the other stores put together.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_02: So we were missing those sales, and I was going like, they're not in Walmart, I'm there.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_02: And we're there, and he goes, I don't want to hear another word, I'm gonna get rid of you.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_02: So it was interesting that he didn't want to know the truth, and the truth would have helped everybody, right?
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_02: And so uh anyway, it was a weird situation, and of course it led me going to you know Congress and being one of the babies that Napster babies that got, you know, had a zillion uh uh downloads that you make no money off of.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_02: So that was the beginning of it all.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_02: But it was interesting that he didn't want to know.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_02: But he told us he wanted to know, but he wanted to deal with it, and uh, and I always felt like what a mistake for a leader to make of a company, but he had his own issues, set of issues.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_02: And it it was he was consistent with a lot of other artists like that, and a lot of the people that worked for him.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_02: And um, he wanted a lot of credit, and when he didn't get the credit, he'd probably fire somebody and then he'd take the credit for something that worked.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_02: So anyway, um, but to me that was an important learning lesson as a leader, and it made me a better leader with my bandmates.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_02: I always listened, I still listen.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_02: We always communicate before a show, we communicate after a show, and we always talk about you know, what can I do better, what can we all do better?
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_02: And as the leader of the band, if I can't take the truth, but by the way, I know the truth, and I'm the one first one to tell you that I did this wrong and did this wrong.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_02: And I I know when I make make a mistake, of course, they're gentle, they still are gentle with me.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_02: They don't have to be, because they know I'm hard on myself.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_02: So um rarely do I get through a performance being perfect.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_02: It just never really happened.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_02: So uh, and they know that, but they we always discuss these things and sound.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, I think one time uh we had had everything just you just show up when they set up, everything is digitally uh it remembers everything from the last show.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_02: Well, the last show was the best we ever sounded, and so you don't have to go through it.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_02: He decided he wanted to rewire everything, and we love him, but he didn't tell us.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_02: And so we ended up doing like a two and a two-hour sound check, and it was awful.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_02: So I said, just go back to the last scene that was set, and then we were he goes, I'm sorry, I was trying, but there was a lack of communication there, and we all got frustrated for the first time in how many years.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_02: And but but he apologized, and we it was all good, but he was trying to make it, he was trying to do something for the better.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_02: And sure he just didn't think about it of uh being that difficult and it ended up being a problem.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_02: And uh we've we sorted it out and it's been great ever since, and those things happen.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah good stuff, man.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: So a lot of lot of a lot of stuff to unpack in there.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: I think you have both correctly landed on the idea that uh the tone at the top is a big deal in this kind of world.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: If you truly want to get feedback from frontline people, uh that that really has to be established in the behavior and you know the the call to action from that leader.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like it will you're right.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: It was cool that that guy said, Hey, yeah, if you're in a market and you don't see a product in there, you let me know.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then boom, you do it, and it's like, ah, I don't want to hear that.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so the minute that that happens, then we see that the whole thing was a bunch of BS.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: And so not only does that not solve for that specific issue, but it probably kills any opportunity moving forward uh to have honest feedback come back up.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: So what we end up doing as worker bees in this company is we just start figuring out, and we do it in about one second, how to work around the leader.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: So we learn to bypass the leader.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: And and that is it, I see it all the time.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: And the leader may go years and never know.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_00: They've been excluded from whole strategic conversations and processes because they know that the leader doesn't have the guts or the wherewithal to hear the truth or to deal with the numbers as they are.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: They just keep giving him happy talk or her happy talk.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yes, oh look, see, here's a plus, here's another plus.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, oh, good, my god, I'm doing a good job.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: And that's it.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: So then they want to just keep him or her, you know, sequestered.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: And then the second part of the thing is the people out there themselves.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I can't tell you how many times I've talked to somebody who is a frontline person, often in a financial institution, and I I was going downstairs to get coffee at a particular place I was working uh as a consultant, and and I'm waiting for the remember those bun coffee pots, you know, the big drip thing.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm waiting for that coffee to brew uh is coming down, and I see one of the the lead tellers there, and so I said, you know, so what's going on?
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh what's you know, how's everything going here uh right now with this with this shop?
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: And the woman says, she turns to me and she says, Well, things are going pretty good, but uh, you know, I don't know why we're doing these big promotions for all of these these uh long-term uh uh finance things because all it's doing is raising our cost of funds and and it's just re and so she's just rattling off, you know, not just oh, it'd be nicer if we had a line over there.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: No, she she understood strategically what was happening, and she was seeing that the foot traffic that was coming in was actually harming the financial institution and nobody seemed to care about it.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: And and uh it really struck me because and I'm gonna say this and I and I I apologize in advance for what I'm about to say.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: But when this was this was a young woman, she was probably 25, she had the the hair blonde hair that was sprayed and floofed and floofed and curled and twisted.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: 71.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: We had to add a bead necklace on, you know.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, she was just all that together, but she didn't strike me originally as being particularly bright until she opened up with that.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then I was like, oh my, you are a very switched-on individual.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: And if I was working in this shop on the regular, I I'd be saying, I don't know what her name was, but you just ask Marge what's going on because Marge has it all figured out.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: When you find those people that have that sensibility, yeah, that's gold.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's awesome.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the leaders Randy's the one that's gonna throw the word on you, but I got one I'm gonna throw on you today.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: Wait, time out.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: I gotta prepare do I need to prepare myself?
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_01: Hold on, go ahead.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: I'm ready.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_01: So so the word I'm gonna throw on you today is subsidiarity.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_01: And subsidiarity actually comes out of Catholic social teaching.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: And basically what it says is that subsidiarity encourages the decisions to be made at the lowest possible level.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_01: So it's really this idea that we're empowering those people that are on the front line, that are doing the jobs, it's empowering them to make those decisions versus having to run it up the flagpole every time and get, you know, get the sign-off from the ivory tower.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: So subsidiarity is really that idea of making sure that people that are doing the work, that are doing the work uh um are the ones that are being allowed to make the decision on the spot rather than you know having to second-guess themselves and wondering if leadership is gonna give them the okay.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_02: I love that.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_02: Well, let me tell you back up for my show that I do for Viking Cruise Line when they come to town and the 10 buses show up at this beauti beautiful ornate Old Theater.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um, there's a lot of moving parts, and everybody has to be responsible for what they do.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_02: And the last thing I want to hear is anybody tell me anything is going on with anything, because there's we feed them as well.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_02: So you have a staff, a wait staff, we have tour guides that that bring them to us on the buses, and then they and of course they're the bookends, the hospitality, profound hospitality.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_02: Sorry, Mike, always.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_02: But uh, but it's there's a lot of moving parts, and they don't always go perfect, you know, and we'll have these discussions, but we probably powwow.
• 16:06
  SPEAKER_02: Uh here's the deal.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_02: I let them do their own powwow before the before everybody shows up.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_02: So food and beverage is doing their own thing.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_02: We're doing our own thing.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_02: Everybody's the kitchen staff back back house is doing that, do it as well.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_02: And then every but you're doing you're creating your own huddles and doing your own huddle.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_02: Let's here's the game plan, reminding you of certain things.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_02: It may be just the that you do it so much it maybe you get a little complacent.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_02: So let's don't be complacent when it comes to the hospitality business, especially.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and you know, let's kill them with kindness.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_02: So the all of those are going on, but everybody is totally irresponsible for their lane.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_02: And I love that.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_02: And I think they do too.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_02: And I I don't think I've ever thought about it until today of why I love it.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_02: And why they love it, and why they do such a great job, because it's theirs.
• 16:57
  unknown: Yeah.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_03: You know?
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_02: And I love the fact when some when something they they own it, and when they own it, it you know, stay in your lane, Steve.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_02: I love that.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_02: You know?
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's it's it you were uh just in the hospital there uh uh for a short visit on Monday, I guess.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: Is that when it was?
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so one of the things that I uh really appreciated from the medical establishment was a movement that started, I don't know, maybe 15 years ago called the medical home model.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you're familiar with this concept, but uh as soon as I as I relate it, I think you will be.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_00: The medical home model says that the care of a patient, like the the experience, surgical experience that you had, certainly it was done by a surgeon, but that surgeon couldn't in no way do the job without 30 or 40 other people working in collaborative ways.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: And this is what you were just getting to, Steve, as well.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: You can put on a show, you're the artist, but there's no way you could feed 300 people or whatever it is and do the show.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_00: 100 people right.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah you've gotta have a whole bunch of people.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: And medical home really speaks to this idea and it asks the question or it makes the recommendation that um when you have an MD, that MD should be doing things that only MDs can do.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: They should be making MD decisions.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm a doctor, I'm gonna make a doctor decision.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: I shouldn't be worrying about what the nurses or the LPNs or whoever else is worried about.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: And so the idea is that the person should each each layer of responsibility should be working exclusively on that full, they should be fully empowered.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_00: So if you're a uh uh you know a registered nurse, then you should be doing RN things only and not LPN things.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: And that that way you're sort of maximizing the education potential and the experience and the talent that's there.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: And it makes so much sense.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: And when you go to some of these really swanky centers now, uh Sloan Kettering and all these other places that are uh uh these amazing research hospitals, um, I've talked to a number of people who've gone in uh with usually some kind of serious cancer experience, and it's they're often going into places like Sloan Kettering on a Hail Mary.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they're just this is it, this is my last chance.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: And uh one of the guys told me, he said, Yeah, I went there and I had a consultation, and then when they called me back and said they'd take my case, when I came back the next time a week later, and walked in the door, uh, and I walked over to the reception area and I said, Hi, I'm me, and I'm here for this appointment.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: The woman said, Okay, just a minute, and the d the elevator door opened up and a woman comes out.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I I can go ahead and say this.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_00: A guy's name was Ty Warren.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: He's he's not still Ty Warren, and he's still alive because of the great work at Sloan Kettering.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, anyway, this woman walks out and she's wearing a sharp-looking t-shirt that says Team Warren on it.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: And then she takes him up in the elevator and they walk down the hall and they go into a room, a conference room, and every physician and other person in there is wearing Team Warren shirts.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, and they say, This is your team.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_00: I love it.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that that is something.
• 20:25
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, when you when when you embrace the reality that we all have to work together really dynamically uh to achieve impossible things, I just I get I love that.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_02: You know, and I I love hey, think about teams, you're wearing uniforms and stuff.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's sort of a it's um an extra layer of togetherness, unity.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_02: We have it was it was I c I say I give her all the credit, I let's say she runs a show.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_02: Our girl, Danielle Suber, she's phenomenal.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and she runs the staff, you know, and she does a lot.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_02: But uh she goes, hey, we need team shirts.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_02: And I said, Okay, so we have the Steve Azar's Mississippi, everybody wears them, you know, everybody has them, and and then she, of course, she says, I need a team jacket, because I'm the leader of the leader of that part.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_02: So she's got that.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_02: But but I do love that, and I gotta tell you something.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_02: They were all just wearing black shirts before and black pants, but having that now as part of their ensemble, it just looks great, and I feel like they all feel better about it, you know?
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_02: It's interesting that and she was the one that figured that out, not me.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I remember being in high school and how motivating it was to get a letter sweater or uh whatever.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_00: Oh yeah.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that was very, very powerful stuff.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: Because it really does you you it it's expressly saying I am part of this community.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_00: You know, and and uh I just I just love it.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's fantastic.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you know, you you you bring up that especially.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think kids care as much about I used to love the all the letters and the and the state championship stuff when we won it or the district champion.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_02: I mean I had I was painted, you know.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_02: And all my friends and I mean I think I made stuff up just to put it on.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_02: But but my kids, we found in like the furthest corner of their closet all these letters and awards, all the stuff.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_02: And I, you know, I had a my daughter was an all-state track uh cross-country twice, all state in the mile.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and she was all conference, all she and she had so many things, you know, uh, and so I decided, and they had their jacket, their jackets were bare.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_02: My old my middle son was, you know, all Delta and basketball, all region, all conference, all this, all that, MVP every year.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_02: And uh he had all these stripes and all these, you know, MVP balls and all that.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_02: And I said, I'll be doggone.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_02: I'm taking it.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_02: So I took their jackets for me, just for me, because this is what we did growing up.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_02: So and then when they came home, they were hanging up all embroidered and sewed on, and they said, Are you kidding me?
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_02: So they didn't even care.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_02: And it's an interesting thing because that was such a sign of something, you know.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_02: And then you had a girlfriend, she got to wear the jacket.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, come on, guys.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_02: To me, that was like the best time, and they just don't have time for it.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_02: And and I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_02: What do y'all think?
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, like, let's talk universe.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: It is different.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: It is very different now.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: There's no doubt about it.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I think I think what it does is it gives identity.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it, you know, um when when you and and I think that maybe says something about some of the disconnects that we see in the world today.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, is that there isn't that sense of identity as much as there was maybe when we were young and and going through all those things.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_01: I think that, you know, there's so many distractions, and you know, we've talked multiple times about all of those things, you know, the distractions that happen and that kind of thing that gets them focused on so many other things that they don't really get that identity of who they are as an athlete, as a student, as a whatever, as a member of a team, it's not as important to them anymore because of all of the other noise that's going on in their world.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_02: So do you think that that's uh a good thing as far as the humility part?
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_02: Because I think that's uh being humble, but it won and but then again, I feel like they're not taking the time to celebrate achievement.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_02: And and and I'm not talking, you know, I didn't take the time once I started hits, I didn't have time to celebrate.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_02: We talked about what that would look like.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_02: But from their perspective, don't you feel like there needs to be a sense of, oh, that was cool, accomplishment, a memory, a remi a reminder of how much work that that took.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_02: You know, that's all.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I mean I you've you I think you need to have that sense of accomplishment, you know.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you gotta feel like you, okay, I put a lot of work into this and and I was successful at it.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, I would certainly hope that they would celebrate that success and that accomplishment.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, I don't I I guess I just don't know that that um they think it's that important anymore.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_02: You know what I think is important for their kids to see it.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_02: Because it I think that it helps them go, oh, this is when dad was our age, or mom mom was our age.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, look at this.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_02: This is cool.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_02: And you know what?
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_02: They would want to the especially the girls in the past, they would want to wear it.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_02: They would, you know, like that'd be a it'd be retro and cool, and they'd be proud of that.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_02: Like what and then maybe it would open up some dialogue, which we're talking right now about, you know, you know, the people closest to the work know what leaders need to hear.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_02: What about your family?
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_02: Same thing.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_02: So it's interesting to me.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um I think all that's I think all that matters.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_02: What Randy, what's going on in that mind of yours?
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's a scary question.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I've been thinking about uh you know, uh a couple of things.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: As I try to sort out how Gen Z and Gen A are viewing the world so so differently, and this is getting to some of the stuff that you're talking about.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: So your kids are millennials, I would guess, Azar is out of the way.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um 95 to 2000 born.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think a little bit oldest, is he a little bit of something else?
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_02: On the line.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: What what I you know, those one of the things that blew my mind having uh two daughters, I was all very worried about high school because I remember the way I was in high school, and I remember that was a terrible thing.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: So uh uh I was just you know less you know, it's like you you guys gotta watch out.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_00: They had all we'd gotten them through all kind of martial arts together, so she's yeah, it's a great idea.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, but uh you know, so then prom season comes around, and uh I I I I took my wife to the prom.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, we were high school sweethearts, so we did junior and senior prom.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: Love it.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: That was an amazing and it was a big deal.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: It was a big deal.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: It was a big deal back then, yeah.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_00: And now I see my daughters, and I'm like, okay, prom season's coming up.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: What are you guys gonna do?
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, exactly.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: And they so they they go as a group.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_02: They go as a group.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_02: There's nobody dating.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_02: I don't yeah, yeah, that's what they did with us.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I I I think it kind of worked out equal, men and women, but I I didn't even nobody seemed to care.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_02: No, I don't think they had.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then I said, What did you do?
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: And they, well, we just all kind of they just danced in some kind of trick, you know.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like doing dances, it's just yeah, I like to dance, frankly.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's all I can be on.
• 27:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's the way I kind of liked it.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: But but it was so, so, so, so different.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_00: So, where I'm going with this is when we think back to the letter sweaters and things like that, it really was a signification at the time of status of accomplishment.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you're all that.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you're strutting around, I got my letter thing going on, you know, and and I think that they are hesitant to create that.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm more one up than you.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's more egalitarian.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's more we all need to be about the same.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: We shouldn't all be showing up.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: Like if you have one rich friend, you know, that was always a little weird.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh right.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: Keep your money to yourself.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's not what this is about.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_02: No, you know, I think I think you've nailed it.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_02: I think you've nailed that.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I think that they don't want to outshine the other.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that, and that I gotta tell you, that's kind of noble and beautiful.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_02: You know?
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_02: It says the group is what's in the they're just so concerned about the group as a whole, which is what we I always I like to take, you know, look, you guys, we're getting a little carried away today.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_02: I like to bring it right back to where we started.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_02: This is what I learned doing uh interviews.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_02: Steve, you uh you seem to wonder when you do interviews.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_01: Wander, wander, not wonder, wander.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna so I'm gonna pivot back to that then.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_01: So this importance of the group, and Randy, I know that you've seen this a lot because you've been in financial institutions as long as I've been in financial institutions.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_01: And what we see a lot, especially in financial institutions, but certainly in many other industries as well, is what we call the silo effect.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, big time.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_01: Where everybody is in their own little group and or their own department or their own division or whatever it is, and they never want to communicate with the other ones.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, I think that's the other side of this, is that yeah, you can have your own group, but in the in an organization, when there isn't active communication between those groups, those divisions, those departments, those teams, whatever it is, when there's not communication there, that's when things begin to break down.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I think it's a it's a really important aspect when we think about leaders listening to those on the front lines.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: We also, and and I think Steve, you mentioned it right out of the blocks, this communication issue.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_01: There has to be active communication amongst everyone, whether it's leadership or whether it's somebody on the fr making the decision on the front line.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_01: Sure.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_01: When there's not active communication, that's when we have things that that go bad.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_01: And I know Randy, you can you can probably talk on this for a lot, but this whole the whole idea of of breaking down those silos so that there is that communication that allows that front end or frontline person to be able to make those decisions.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you can I love the word breakdown because and and who was it, our guy Tom Petty, the late great Tom Petty.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_02: Break down, go ahead and give it.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I like look, the bottom line is things are gonna break down.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_02: And and you have to be able to be communicate so they won't break down again.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_02: And you don't want the same thing constantly breaking down, then that's a real problem.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I was listening to some Smokey Robinson over the weekend, and uh I love it.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: I know.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: She's she's amazing.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway, and I can't remember uh exactly what the song was.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I think it's How You Make Me Feel was the name of the song.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: But the song's beautiful song, simple song, and then he's right in the middle of it, he goes, Okay, break it down, break it down now.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: And so then each instrument sort of steps back, and so it just sort of go resolves all the way down to the drums, you know.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so you and then it comes back, and you're sort of like, oh wow.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: You hear everything distinctly, and then you hear it all come back together again, and it's such a a wonderful common thing to do.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not an unusual thing, but it was magical in the context of that because it really changed the song for me.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: It was like, oh, I hear the the individual silo to your point, Mike.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, is an important thing, you know, but it's only important to the degree that it fits and collaborates with and extends the the soul of the song, you know.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: That's what it was really.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_02: I loved it.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_02: I loved how you broke that down.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_02: Beautiful.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_02: Well I'll never look at songs the same way again.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_02: Never.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, so when you are in places where there are silos, the other thing that's gonna happen with that is you're gonna see information is not being shared laterally.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_00: So this is the first so and I see this a lot in places like uh repo departments uh uh in in financial institutions.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they're often in another building or in another place, and nobody wants to do that.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_00: Well, oh, you're in repo, oh wow, this and what they're telling you is hey, we're talking to people that are struggling right now, and here's some things that you should be hearing, Mr.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: Boss, you know, because they're telling us why they're not paying their bills.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_00: And if we did a few things differently, maybe we could reduce the number of these things or make it a better experience for these customers, you know.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_00: And oftentimes it's just like, nope, that information is not gonna be shared because we think they're less than us or that they're somehow you know, not so good.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and you see them.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you even see turf wars, you know.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's uh, you know, our our silo is better than your silo, so god forbid we're gonna allow you to come over to our silo, you know.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_01: You're costing us.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_02: Look what you're costing us, right?
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_02: I could see uh I can see offenses and defenses on in football looking at each other.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_02: Defense is holding the score down, and the offense can't get in the end zone, and I guarantee they're kind of at some point looking at each other like, hey, how about it?
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_02: You know, like we're holding up here.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_02: A little help here, you know, you know, or or a pitcher that's shutting, you know, you'd pitchers duel like because somebody hit the freaking ball, you know, like come on.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_02: Uh but but but but yeah, I mean it's sports, business, music business, on stage, whatever.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_02: It's funny how all of these things are in play all the time.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's so important, just so important.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_02: Amazing.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I I think the other piece that's very important is the way you deal with the person who stands up and says the emperor has no clothes.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: When somebody has that courage and says, you know, I know we said this is what we were going to do, this is what we've invested in for the last year, but we've tried it and it ain't working, and here's why I can tell you it ain't working.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it's so tempting if you're the manager of that whatever that thing was that you were trying to do, that you're going to get defensive and you're going to attack that person, or you're going to pull them aside at the end of the meeting and say, This is not the way we do this.
• 34:51
  SPEAKER_00: You should have and you should.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I really look at those things as being evidentiary of a much richer or more anemic uh culture in the organization.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: It's a true indication.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_00: When you see somebody stand up and say, I think the Emperor has no clothes, first thing you need to do is say, Wow, that took some courage.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so now I'm going to start asking questions.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me how you came to that conclusion.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_00: What's going on?
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: What do you think the effect of this is?
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: What do you see that we could begin to do differently?
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_00: And so forth.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so what I'm trying to tell when I'm coaching people, and you have that experience of somebody um going against the grain of whatever the business line of thinking is, uh, to just start asking a bunch of questions and lead that way for at least a day or two until you figure out what's going on, talking to other people, saying if it's rational.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, I it it seems to me the natural reaction is the first thing they want to do is defend themselves, you know, because oh well, this is this was my decision and I'm gonna defend that decision.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_01: But um when you think about it from that perspective, though, the first thing is when somebody says the emperor has no clothes, the emperor himself is the one that has to exercise utmost humility.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yes um because that's the first step to this.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_01: And and when we think about empowering people on the front line to make decisions and do the things that they need to do, the only way that that happens is when the emperor does exercise humility.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_01: And Steve, you had a great example with your team with the Viking Cruise show, in that you're allowing those people to feel like they matter.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_01: You're allowing them.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I mean, you're you're allowing them to give input, to make decisions, to do the things that you need to do.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and yeah, you want them to stay in their lane, but you don't want them to stay in their lane so much that they um think their lane is the only lane.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_01: Their lane is just part of the part of the entire show.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know, or the chain, right, that makes it all together.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_01: So really having that humility and being able to exercise that humility that allows them to say, gee, you know, they really care about my input.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_01: They really want me to give that input.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I think I can give some pretty good input because I'm the one that's hands-on with whoever the decision whoever the decision is that's for.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_01: So if we go back to the the whole hospital example that we used, uh the whole idea that, gee, we're gonna actually listen to a nurse here because the nurse actually might actually have an idea of how things move around in this room before we ever stick a pillar in the middle of a hallway, you know.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_02: So funny.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_02: I've heard this.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_02: This reminds me of my buddy who who was the only cook between him and his wife, and she designed a house without a kitchen.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_02: There you go.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_02: You you think I'm kidding.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_02: She really did.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_02: She really did.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, and he goes, Well, isn't there one thing missing?
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_02: He goes, she goes, No, it's perfect.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_02: Where's the kitchen?
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_02: Where's the kitchen?
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, oh God, I left the kitchen out.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, seriously.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_02: So anyway, he got his kitchen and it's grand, let me tell you.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_02: But uh, but you know, what what about Benedict?
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_02: What what's what's the philosophy there with the rule of Benedict?
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_02: What does he say about this?
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and Benedict would start with this whole idea that uh, you know, the abbot, the emperor, the leader, whatever we want to call them, um uh shouldn't worry about the clothes that they're wearing and wearing, and they should be worrying about how they're making the other people around them better.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_01: And allowing them, and of course, you know, you guys have heard me say this a million times, Benedict looks to the new and the young monks to give them the input because they bring a completely different perspective.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_01: And that's frontline leadership.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's allowing those people that are in the front line to be able to make those decisions, to give input and all that kind of thing.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_01: And so the abbot really is responsible for making sure that those people are in a position that allows them to do that.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, that's the whole idea behind the rule, in that it really allows that constant communication within the monastery or the abbey or whatever, whatever facility it is within the community, so that everybody gives input, everybody makes decisions, and everybody makes them on whatever level it is that they're on, uh, versus going to the abbot all the time to say, you know, and and in fact, Benedict even says the decisions that the abbot should be making are the minor decisions, not the major decisions.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_01: There you go.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_01: Wow, yeah, yeah.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_01: That's perfect.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_00: I was uh struck by the news about the the pontiff having surgery not long ago.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, right.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I don't know how true this is, and this has nothing to do with today's podcast, but I would like your input.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I've done many charity events, and and there was one big cancer research hospital, and the doctor that got up there said there are more cases of non-smoking lung cancer than there are of lung cancer.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously, uh smoking causes all sorts of problems, right?
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_02: Besides that.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_02: But he goes, but and I said, no, no, come on.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's that's what he said.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_02: Is that true?
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_02: Can we do some can do some chat MPT?
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_01: We'll have to do some we'll have to do some Googling on that for the next episode.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_00: I've certainly had uh two uh people in my life have died uh non-smokers.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_00: From lung cancer?
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yes.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_01: Well then they were.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_02: My dad died of lung cancer, but he was a smoker, so yeah.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_02: Interesting, y'all.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_02: Unbelievable.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_02: Well, uh, I think that maybe we've attacked this pretty good.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_02: And we probably got off the rails a little bit.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_02: I think all in all, this has been helpful to me.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_02: Uh in fact, uh when I go back to my next show Saturday, I'm gonna pull everybody together.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_02: As a whole group, as a bunch of us, right?
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_02: Uh if if there's 35, 40 of us, I'm gonna pull us all together, maybe 50 of us, and I'm gonna have a say ask everybody is there anything they feel personally in their world could be better or something they may notice about somebody else's?
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_02: And let's just you know have a good talk about how excited about and I I think maybe I'm gonna do that because I've got a note on my calendar to remind me to do that, uh, but I don't think I do it enough.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_02: And so I'm gonna take this around with that.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_00: There's a concept that you can drop in if you I wouldn't use this language because they think you're a nerd, but Yeah.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_02: I have to be cool, you know.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_00: There's a there's a term in organizational communication called boundary spanning, and it's essentially the opportunity of somebody in accounting to say, uh I I want to make a comment about what's going on in marketing.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_00: Or so I'm gonna reach across two or three organizational parts of, but I I'm going to say what I think about something I have no direct connection to or responsibility about.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_00: And the the key to boundary spanning is that it only works if everybody in the organization has a shared understanding of what the whole organization is trying to do holistically at the best level.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so that'll look like brand values.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: It'll look like all of the the the why are we even in this business, what would happen if we went away tomorrow?
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_00: What would how would the the world be harmed if we went away tomorrow?
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_00: That value proposition piece, right?
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_00: So boundary spanning, if you have that sense, if that narrative is out there, this is who we are, this is what we're trying to do, then boundary spanning works.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't have that, then asking everybody how they could fix it is gonna be a nightmare.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's not gonna work.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, oh I got you.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, yeah.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason this will work for you, Azar, is because you know these people are all in lockstep, they're ready to go.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_00: And what you're really asking them is, hey, how do we go to the next level?
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_00: How do we how do we push through this little comfort place that we're at?
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_00: We know we can do what we're doing now well.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_00: How do we push it a little bit further?
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I love that.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I mean you think about, you know, the opening line of the book Good to Great, good is the enemy of great.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_01: You know, uh how do we how do we become great?
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um, you know, go through a lot of challenges.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of challenges, a lot of disappointments, a lot of mistakes, a lot of sweat and work, and and that's how you get to greatness, you know?
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, gotta go through it all.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I think you're onto something there too.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_00: That it these things are so often we come away from strategic planning sessions and we all have to have these big initiatives that we're gonna go do.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I much prefer a biased action that starts with fixing little things.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_00: Not tripping over cleaning up after yourself, fixing things on the way, giving yourself a present for tomorrow by preparing that report today, right?
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_00: All of those kind of things, just the little tiny things, that's really what ends up making a big, big difference.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_00: So little things matter, my friends.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_00: There's no doubt about it.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_01: Little things matter.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_01: There you go.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_01: Bring us home, Randy.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it's been a delight to see you uh so healthy and hail here, Mike.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_00: Uh coming back from our medical experience.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_00: Looking good.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm also glad that you picked up some narratives along the way.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so really let's have to that nurse uh who paid that hospital probably millions of dollars.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, exactly.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because she was switched on and they were smart enough to pay attention to what was really going on there.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_00: So let's let's just encourage our listeners, go ahead and be a hero by looking at what could be done better and then figuring out the way to get that information to the leader, to the person who can actually make that happen.
• 44:53
  SPEAKER_00: You're gonna be doing something for yourself, something for the company, something for the leader.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_00: And if the leader doesn't listen, then go find another job.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_03: Love is there an idiot.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_02: All right, well, check us out on resonanceleader.com.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_02: Speaking of the leader, uh, on behalf of Mike the Montk Guy Farrell, Randy the PhD Harrington, and myself, uh, Steve Azar, I really appreciate you guys tuning in, and you can check us out at everywhere you stream and pod.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_02: And of course, you can watch us on YouTube and you can bring us in to a conference if you are so daring.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_02: Uh we will come rolling in.
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_02: There you go.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_02: Uh resonance leader.com later on.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_02: Later on, guys.
• 45:32
  SPEAKER_02: All right, yeah.com.