Latest / Andy Stanley Sermons / Andy Stanley - The Power of Human Energy with Angela Ahrendts Apples former SVP of Retail

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Andy Stanley - The Power of Human Energy with Angela Ahrendts Apples former SVP of Retail · Andy Stanley Sermons

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Hey, everybody. Welcome to the Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast, a conversation designed
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to help leaders go further faster. I'm Andy Stanley, and I have been
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looking forward to this month's episode for a long time because today I have Angela
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Aarons in the studio with me to talk about the power of human energy.
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Welcome Angela. Thank you. It's incredible to be here. Yeah, and
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as we were talking about you almost had to invite yourself, Well, I
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did invite myself. She did invite herself because I thought, well, Angela
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is not going to come be on this podcast with me, and then I
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heard her talk about being on another podcast. So thanks for taking the time
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to be here. For those of you who don't know, your life has
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been directly impacted by this fabulous woman. Angela is the former senior vice president
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of all of retail for Apple. So if you purchased an Apple product you
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know somewhere between twenty fourteen and twenty nineteen and beyond, or if you've walked
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into one of these cool, fabulous Apple stores that you remember when that transition
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happened. Angela was behind all of that, and we're going to talk about
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what drove that in just a minute. Prior to Apple, Angela served as
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the chief executive officer for Birbery in London, where she led the company through
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a period of phenomenal global growth, repositioning Birbery as a global luxury brand.
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That is another story we should have you come back and talk about another day.
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It's so amazing. And now she's currently serving on the boards of Ralph
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Lauren Airbnb, among others, charity Water and she's the board chair for Save
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the Children International because Angela, with all of her business success, loves people
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and loves children and has committed to making a difference in the world. Now,
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I am so fortunate because I actually met Angela and her family years ago
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on an Alaskan cruise. We had an opportunity to have lunch, and so
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again I'm so excited that she's with me on the podcast today. So before
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we jump into the power of human Energy, if you would, will you
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talk a little bit about the transition to Apple, because when you describe this
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to me, they ask you, what two or three times before you finally
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agreed and you kind of had a condition for going. So can you tell
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us a little bit about that story? Sure? Sure, you know I
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mean I was. I thought I'd retire from Birbury, you pick up and
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move your entire family over to London, the cats, the dogs, everybody.
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And we had just told the board we were going to double the business
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again in the next five years and acquired the beauty business back. I mean,
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we were soaring, the team was incredible. And then out of left
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field, I get this call from Apple and I had seen that they had
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hired someone and let them go very quickly, you know, and I was
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kind of thanks, no thanks, and anyway, they flew somebody over,
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had a cup of coffee and kind of no thanks, I'm happy, I'm
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loyal, I'm to a fault. And anyway, long story short, they
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knew I was going to be back in the States for Christmas, and so
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someone called and said, would you please have a cup of coffee with Tim?
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And how do you say? No? Right, those revered people in
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the world today. I mean, I used to calling the Glue president because
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whatever he says people read and listen. And so I was, I was,
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you know, in awe. So had a lovely conversation. He is
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a man of incredible peace for the job that he has, and I mean,
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I don't know how he sleeps, but had a wonderful conversation. But
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you know, after the holidays, went back to my team and loved my
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team, loved the mission we were on. And so the conversations continued.
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And you know, when you have an incredible job, you don't need a
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job. And I've never thought of my life as a job. It's my
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life. It's never been a job. So you know, the dialogue's heating
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up. They don't tant no for an answer, they didn't take no,
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yeah, no, no, no. This was one over probably eighteen months.
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I mean, this was you know, but again, this is a
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life decision, and I don't need a job. And we had created the
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Brewery Foundation and we're putting one and a half percent of the profits into the
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foundation. And we had this tagline, you know, how many lives can
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we touch and transform by the power of our performance through clothing? Honestly,
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right, eleven thousand people engaged around the world, volunteering and giving and doing,
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and I mean it was just it's like it was just a It was
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the pinnacle of a leadership position when you when you take a team through that
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journey. Nearly nine years et cetera, so hard hard to walk away from.
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And that was my biggest fear. You know, would I love it
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as much as I love this? Could we make the impact that I never
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thought? You know? Operation? I told him early on, I'm not
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an operator, you know, don't need to run stores. And so we
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had incredible conversations, and finally I just sent him an email and I just
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said, you know, and again I knew it was Apple, and I
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didn't want to wake up some day and say I wish I would have.
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So then I said, just had a long conversation with myself and said,
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then why would you? How would you? So I just sent him an
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email and I said, you know, first of all, you need to
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combine anything the consumer sees, the online, the offline, et cetera.
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If you put all of that together as one, all of retail, you
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mean all of retail, because it was all separate, right, the app
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and the online and the physic. So I said, first of all,
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it's got to come together. You're giving him advice before he's hired. You
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go ahead. But then I said, but even more importantly, because my
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heart was in the human things we were doing at Burbery's and when we connected
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everybody to do those things. That's when the business took off. Right.
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Revenue is the output of doing incredible things, and so so I just said,
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if you can almost take your philanthropic arm and use retail to make an
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impact in communities, then it would be something I'd have to consider. Wow,
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And that was not really a thread in the Apple culture at that point.
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So this was you were introducing, not new product, not new ideas,
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not new business ideas. You were trying to introduce empathy for what's going
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on in communities, leveraging this extraordinary company to do good in the communities.
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And that was your condition for going. You weren't negotiating salary. You weren't
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negotiating Oh, I get to have to come back to the United States.
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And I wanted everyone listening to hear that part of this story because everything else
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we're going to talk about in this episode in the next really flows from that
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heart. And again, when I met you and heard some of this,
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I just thought this is remarkable. So eventually they sort of opened up the
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I don't know the check book the vault right and said okay, come on
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and do this. You weren't sure what it was going to look like you
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had to get there and figure it out, and they gave you running room.
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And what happened after that when you when you finally said yes. What
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was just a little bit about those those early months, maybe a couple of
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first couple of years. Well, first of all, my husband's like,
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excuse me, were what, yeah, you know, but your kids were
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here, and well, yes and no, you know again, it's it's
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a life alter you know, when you make big global decisions, you know,
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these are huge family decisions. And our families really really really close,
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and and so, you know, but two were in college, and my
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little one was going to be a freshman and she's like, I'm not moving,
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you know. And the two in college were like, they're nine years
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right nearly. Yeah. Yeah. And the kids in college were like,
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oh, that's really cool, mom, it's apples, you know. And
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so there were all different different types of but my husband was also very settled,
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you know, the house and the and so they're life altering decisions,
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but I think when you do them from the right place, and you know,
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it's funny. When I talked to my parents, I said, you
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know, my mom was kind of surprised, and I said mom, mom
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My, Mom's very My spiritual arm comes from my mom. And I said,
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Mom, it's a calling. It's not a job, it's a calling.
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I have learned a tremendous amount of berbery, and everything I learned has
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set me up to go in and it's just another level. It's not eleven
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thousand people. I started with fifty five thousand people. I mean, it's
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not three billion dollars. It's over forty million dollars. And and but again
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I didn't even think of that. It's it's it's you know, there's hundreds
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of millions of people. A billion people go on to Apple dot com.
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So if you can come up with an experience, come up with something that
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just can make an impact, then that's the job. That's the you know.
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And in our conversation, that was the word I wrote down on my
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notes. That was the thing is, I don't want to come and sell
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product. I don't want to come and just redesign the stores. I want
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to make an impact and if you'll give me the permission and the resources I
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need. But for you, that was became a there was a very tangible
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thing connected to that because you're the one who created this whole idea, with
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the idea of inviting the community into the stores, not simply to purchase product,
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but to learn to use the product. Tell us, just where did
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that come from? How did that go? Because when most people, you
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know, people under thirty, think about an Apple store, that's what they've
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experienced. They wait out line, wait outside, they sit in classes,
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they learned to use these things. Where did all that come from? And
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how how was that hard to sell once you got in h Yeah, great
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question, I mean it. And it's funny. You know, I'm a
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very intuitive person. I always say that I use my instincts and then I
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confuse myself with the facts. So I'm very right brain, left brain,
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but I always always always lead with my instincts, and so you know,
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and then I always say, and I just my job is to connect dots.
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You're just a connector, right. So so I found it really fascinating
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that a billion people had these devices, had these bos iPad and a billion
9:30
phones and I don't know a couple hundred million iPads. And it's funny because
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all of the apps that are on a phone on an unaided basis, they
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all have like a ninety nine percent recognition rate. When you look at that
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photo app, or you look at the app store app or the music app
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right around the world, everybody automatically knows what those are. But when you
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went into an Apple store, there was no relationship back too. So I
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felt, I felt, and I would listen to Tim's investor presentations and he
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kept talking talking about the software and the services and the growth, how many
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more billions the app store was adding on an Apple Music and the vision for
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Apple TV. He was talking about all the software, but when you went
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into the stores, it was all about the hardware. And even the first
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couple of weeks I was there, he had me meet with all the big
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executives and I asked one big executive who was over a lot of consumer facing
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things, and I said, just quick question, are we a noun or
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a verb? And he said, We're a noun. We're always a noun.
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It's about the hardware, the design of the hardware, et cetera.
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But by the end of the week I asked him, I said, are
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we a noun or a verb? Is it what it is or what you
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can do with it, what it empowers you to do? And he just
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looked at me. And said we're a verb. Wow, it is what
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And so that was the ambiguity I walked into, right, And so if
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it is about what you can do with it, and it's about empowering,
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then and everybody has these and they recognize what they are. And you know,
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of course you do a lot of research, you pull and consc firms
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and because again you use your instincts, and then you ask people to quantify
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things. And so so Apple, just take Apple Music. There was nothing
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about Apple Music in the stores, but they owned garage band and they owned
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all these things to create music that people were downloading, and they had just
11:16
launched Apple Music. And so if you need to reskill kids, and if
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they're living on these anyway, then why not invite them in and teach them
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about music, how to create music. How the reason they wouldn't then is
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because the stores were not designed for that. And you decided, you know
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what, we're going to redesign the stores in order to do something that Apple
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has never done before. And they let you do that. I mean that
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was some serious vision casting, I mean a very expensive decision. And so
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why did they let you do it? Yeah? But again, so of
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course you build a business case, right, So we took the four biggest
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apps, photos, et cetera, and how many users are on there.
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And it was actually interesting because people would come into the Apple Store and the
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Genius Bar was just the be all end all right, right, But what
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most people don't realize is sixty percent of the people were booking an appointment and
12:07
standing in line to ask a question, not to get a repair. So
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that helped guide a bit. Then they wanted to know how to do stuff,
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and the stores and the way the Genius Bar was designed was not really
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to help them learn how to do stuff, and you saw that as the
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thing as a huge opportunity that they wanted to go deeper on their devices.
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They wanted to learn and be able to do more with it. So we
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said, okay, maybe if sixty percent, maybe we can free up the
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genius bar and let them handle more repairs because they were so backed up.
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If we focused that, and then what would be the equivalent to the genius
12:46
bar on the education side? And so we created a new position called a
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creative pro and we said, the creative pro is to teaching you all about
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your device, as the genius is to repairing that device, and then,
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you know, we had to bring in some incredible people to and worked with
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all the educators in Apple to you know, Apple has their own coding,
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they owned Swift, but so how do we put a program in place to
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teach the next generation how to code? So we created all of these exciting
13:16
curriculums and as you said, redesigned the stores, redesigned both walls and put
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those apps that are so identifiable all put that photo app up there, and
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then here's all of the accessories you need to make you a bet a photographer,
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you know. So we change the sides and then we put in these
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huge screens and seating depending on the store, for up to one hundred and
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fifty people, and we called it. We had an amazing young group of
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kids that were creating the curriculum and we called it today at Apple. And
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that's why we also stopped calling the stores stores because you could buy products faster,
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cheaper anywhere. Right, Retail is not the biggest part of Apple's business.
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They've got huge carriers at and t et cetera. So we had to
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serve a completely different purpose and more than just repairing phones. Of course,
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we sold a lot of phones as well. But we wanted to do and
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give more to the community. So we started very early on as well with
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all fifty five thousand employees whatever it was when I started rapidly growing, and
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we did an internal crowdsourcing exercise and for six months we started asking them questions
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and we said, what do you think Apple could do more of in your
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community or should be doing more in your community? Was going on in every
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store as people came into the store, you figured out a way to ask
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them about what happened. No, we actually asked the fifty five thousand employees
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because they had been with us for so long, I mean we lived in
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ten years. They represented the community. So they're the ones that came back
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and said, you need to help the entrepreneurs, you need to help the
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educators. They're not keeping pace. And that's when the team came up with
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teachers Tuesdays and invited every teacher in the community to come in and the teams
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would sit there after hours sharing with them the hottest apps and how to do
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things totally free. Wow. But this all came from the teams. This
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was not Angela's brilliant vision top down right. So it was a combination of
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some people in the center creating amazing curriculums and content, but it was guided
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by what those very seasoned Apple employees in those stores said they needed and they
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wanted. Wow, And then we connected the dots with you know, just
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taking things Apple owned and working with the guys that created the camera on the
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phone and you know, and different things we could teach, et cetera.
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So I said that retail needed to be the lightning rod for Apple, and
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we needed to be the place where the best of Apple came together and came
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to life. I mean, the original code name for today at Apple was
15:39
called iOS live. Just taking this software and making it come to light.
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So I got a hip pause because they're like my mind's kind of exploding in
15:50
terms of there are so many takeaways in terms of principal, fundamental things you
15:54
have just blitzed through that are so intuitive to you. The one being there
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was a gold mine sitting in every Apple store, a bank of experiential knowledge
16:07
sitting there that had never been tapped and never been mined. And that is
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what can this company do for your community. You just happen to work here,
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but you live in this community that has been there since day one,
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and it just never got tapped into. But your unique approach and your unique
16:23
way of thinking is what you awakened the organization to what we have. We've
16:30
never tapped into that. That's amazing and that's just one of many things I
16:34
think we could unpack. And our podcast audience is an above average audience,
16:38
I believe, and I think they will be able to unpack some of that
16:41
on their own without me trying to tease it all out. But I do
16:45
want to go from there into what our topic is, and that's this whole
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idea. You've termed it human energy. So what is at the core of
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this idea of human energy? I think you just accidentally illustrated it. But
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talk just a little bit about that for us. Yeah, you know,
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and I think if people are hanging it for the first time, they can
17:03
kind of think, you know, human energy, like that's kind of odd,
17:06
or you know, it's not like it's a ubiquitous term out there in
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cultural conversation. You're about to make it one, so go ahead. But
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it was interesting because I did it. I did a Ted talk I don't
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even know how maybe ten years ago, and it was when Berbery was at
17:21
its heighth. I mean we had we had double the business. We just
17:25
were on such a role and I'd never done it before. I'd never been
17:29
a CEO before. I mean, I'd never moved across the Atlantic to a
17:33
global business, and so I just there was a moment where I just wanted
17:37
to hit pause and I wanted to just just think about what we had done,
17:41
because I also didn't want to lose it as we got bigger and bigger
17:45
and bigger. So I really wanted to codify it. And we brought in
17:48
this cultural anthropologist and let him loose go to every office around the world,
17:52
and I said, share with us, what have we done. And he's
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actually the one who came back and he said, you have unlocked this incredible
17:59
energy. And then I started going deeper with him to understand. But it
18:03
was really my awakening into I was doing it all intuitively, and it was
18:08
finally someone who was saying, no, no, no, here's what you've
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done. Here's the structure, here's the framework. Here you know, so
18:14
then you can repeat it and you can scale it. So one of the
18:17
things we talk about in this podcast all the time is if you don't know
18:19
why it's working when it's working, you won't know how to fix it if
18:22
it breaks. And so again, this is such a big leadership idea.
18:27
You you know you it was working and your intuition is what kind of sparked
18:33
it and drove it. But you do have to stop every once in a
18:36
while and ask, Okay, what exactly is working and why is it working?
18:40
Because as leaders, I think sometimes we are the worst at doing sort
18:44
of an autopsy on our own success. We think we know why. And
18:48
if you don't know why, you can undermine the driving force behind something good
18:52
accidentally. So how smart to come in behind it and not assume that since
18:56
I'm behind it, I understand it. That's brilliant. So anyway, so
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keep going. I don't want to I don't want to interrupt. So a
19:03
little bit more about human energy. Well yeah, and it was funny because
19:06
now you've got, you know, this huge team at Burbery and so many
19:08
new people coming in. So how do you explain it to them? Right?
19:11
How do you make it a part of your onboarding? So and how
19:15
does everybody know about it? So you're bringing in the right people and then
19:17
you're you're indoctrinating them, et cetera. So so we started to talk about
19:22
it very simply, and because most people, you know, it's kind of
19:25
like culture energy. There's the metaverse, right, there's these words that that
19:29
buzzwords, and and I wanted it to be deeper than a buzzword. So
19:32
we just started to very simply say, this seems like what we've done.
19:36
You know, we all breathe, we all inhale, we exhale. You
19:41
don't see it, but we all know that we naturally as humans do that.
19:45
And I was learning that we were putting out this incredible energy, and
19:48
then we were we were realizing that how people gravitated towards it, and how
19:55
it united people, and how it started to build this incredible foundation. And
19:59
at one point I told the team they were kind of looking at me like
20:00
I had five heads, like she's kind of gone, you know, wow,
20:03
she's you know, and I said, no, just wait a minute.
20:07
You know, in a building, it's got electricity that empowers it.
20:11
So I said, think of energy almost as human electricity, you know,
20:15
and when you plug it in, it just unleashes. And it's not charisma.
20:21
You know, books have been written the power of positive thinking. I
20:23
mean, it's just it's it's putting these things out there, and when you
20:26
do, it has this incredible ability to unite, and when it unites,
20:33
you build this incredible foundation, and then this momentum it's just yeah, oh,
20:40
it creates its own momentum. Yeah. So but when you're teaching this,
20:44
and again again there's so much here, it's oftentimes intuitive to us.
20:48
We got to put words around it or we can't transfer it. And what
20:49
happens. You've seen this a thousand times. I'm sure the founder has the
20:55
intuition and creates the team, but if they if we don't put words around
20:59
it, you can't pass it on to the next generation. Founder goes away.
21:02
Suddenly the energy goes away because again, nobody knew what the driving force
21:04
really was. You know, we thought it was the product, and we
21:07
discovered it wasn't the product, it was something else. So what kinds of
21:11
words or terminology did you put around this as you began to try to transfer
21:15
because it is a bit nebulous, but nobody listening doubts what you're saying,
21:21
because we've all experienced it, and we've all been places where we needed human
21:26
energy it wasn't there, and you know, is it even possible to manufacture.
21:30
So it talked a little bit about that, and then again, you
21:33
know, why is this so important to leaders? Yeah, And what we
21:37
really discovered was because we became at Burberry so connected and I mean we were
21:42
mission driven, we were purpose and you know, we'd been reading all Jim
21:47
Collins books, but we were we were so united and and so what we
21:52
determined was is that that this energy, in order to harness it and in
21:56
order to leverage it, it really comes from a very deep core. So
22:02
what we kind of came up with, which kind of was the basis for
22:03
the Ted talk, was it starts with trust, it goes to intuition,
22:10
and from that comes this incredible belief. And I talked a lot about trust
22:15
in the company. For me, it's the bane of you know, I
22:18
don't care if it's my husband and I together for forty five years, I
22:21
don't care if it's with my kid in anything. If I just the currency
22:26
of relationship, right absolutely, Yeah. And if it's if you're low on
22:30
trust, yeah, you know, the relationship suffers. So talk about go
22:33
ahead and keep going and trust. In terms of building that into a corporate
22:37
culture, what does that look like? It's counterintuitive, right, But I
22:41
used to tell the teams that the higher up you get, the more personal,
22:48
the more authentic, the more present you need to be. And you
22:55
know, again they kind of look at me. And then I tried to
22:56
lead by example. I was, you know, Christopher and I both we
23:00
were out there doing constant videos. I mean, we were having huge group
23:03
meetings because I do believe, I believe in leading by example, and nothing
23:07
was beneath me, and it's just authentic, consistent communication. Of course,
23:12
we had an incredible strategy and you know, all the qualitative and the quantitative
23:17
metrics, et cetera, none of that means anything. Well, none of
23:21
that builds trust exactly. So the videos, the personal part that nothing's beneath
23:25
me, that was your way corporately of building trust and then hopefully inviting people
23:30
into relationships where they trusted each other exactly. But it starts with you,
23:34
It starts with the leader building it. Yeah, right, And I used
23:37
to always say, because I don't believe in hierarchy, and at both companies
23:41
Apple and Berber, I've always said, no, we're gonna flip ourselves upside
23:44
down, that it's your company. You know, you have a voice you
23:48
need to be heard, and I'm only here. I'm the connector, I'm
23:52
the enabler, you know, and I'm going to exit stage left someday,
23:56
and this thing needs to At Burbery, we used to say, we have
23:59
to do everything in our to build this trust, to get this momentum going,
24:03
because the company's been around one hundred and fifty years, and our job
24:07
is to do everything we can in our tenure to make sure that it is
24:10
so strong and so relevant to be around for another one hundred and fifty years.
24:14
And that removes self from the equation. And there's something that doesn't happen
24:18
very often sometimes in corporate environments are really any environment that's not intuitive. But
24:25
you learn that from your faith background as well. I bet. So,
24:27
what is the relationship between trust and intuition? Because the tendency would be to
24:33
think no intuition, you lead with intuition. But you're so right, it
24:37
has to be trust first, but trust intuition. Talk about intuition. What's
24:41
the relationship. Yeah, so trust unlocks intuition. Most people don't lead with
24:47
intuition. Right. The entire education system is focused on our left brain memorization,
24:52
et cetera, where you know, we're born with incredible I said,
24:55
someday, I can't wait, and maybe in an AI empowered world, we're
24:57
going to start putting in tuition classes, you know, back back into all
25:03
levels of education, because it's the only way I believe we're going to survive
25:06
long term is you know, as AI takes off, et cetera. But
25:08
to me, you have to have the trust. And when you have the
25:12
trust and people's values are aligned and they're very united, then it just naturally
25:19
unlocks. It unlocks your creative thinking, it unlocks your intuition. You don't
25:25
feel you're going to get laughed at if you have an idea. It's just
25:27
collectively, everybody collaborating and it's you know, it's just people feeding off of
25:33
each other, and that creates an incredible energy into itself. But no idea
25:37
is a bad idea. And everybody, because they trust each other, they're
25:41
so open. And then it's the old you know, two heads are better
25:45
than one. And at Berberie. To unlock it, we created this Council
25:48
of young we call it the Innovation Council, and we put these young kids
25:55
in there, the top fifteen youngest most innovative thinkers, and that was their
25:59
job, just to come up with ideas and concepts. And because the senior
26:03
team who reported to me, you know, I mean you know we oh
26:07
we did that. Oh we've been there. Oh you know, nobody's gonna
26:11
wear that. And the world's moving so fast that you can't keep pace.
26:15
And that was a part of flipping it upside down, giving the young voice,
26:19
telling them to use their digital natives, use your instincts. Where's it
26:23
going. I don't know where it's going. I have to watch my kids,
26:27
and there's no way I can intuitively stay on top of it. I
26:30
can use my instincts. You just encourage a lot of parents right there with
26:33
that statement who are trying to keep up with technology, and Angela Eric says,
26:37
yeah, I have a hard time keeping up with technology. We just
26:40
all feel better about ourselves. Yep. Yeah, So this is so important.
26:45
I mean, obviously this is why you did it, But for that
26:48
younger group not to be afraid to express and move up the chain their crazy
26:53
bad ideas. There had to be trust. If there was no trust,
27:00
We've all seen this. People are sitting in meetings and they're not saying anything,
27:03
and they're not saying anything, and you know what they're doing. They're
27:04
like, Okay, I want to say something. What's going to happen to
27:07
me when I say this? So we'd smother our intuition trying to be careful,
27:12
protect ourselves and make sure nobody thinks poorly me. So by creating that
27:17
environment, apparently clearly that group was not afraid to bubble up their strange ideas.
27:22
They weren't going to get Well, how how much is it going to
27:25
cost all that stuff? You had cleared the decks for them? You bet
27:27
powerful, powerful, you bet well. I used to tell them. I
27:30
used to say, you know, it's it's your greatest God given gift.
27:34
And I used to say, you know, just use your natural inclinations to
27:40
protect the possibilities rather than simply accept the probabilities that a senior leadership team,
27:48
they'll confuse you with the facts. So intuition teaches us to use our natural
27:53
inclinations to protect the possibilities rather than simply accepting the probabilities. That is amazing
28:03
and managing and leading a company where part of your job is to keep those
28:10
parameters wide enough for that to happen. Without tradition, middle management been there
28:17
done that beginning to just move those walls and encrust the innovation out of a
28:21
company that's phenomenal. So the number three is belief. What's the connection.
28:25
So you have trust, You've got everybody using their instincts, and what happens
28:29
now is you're moving, You're getting momentum. And so I always say that
28:33
belief then is ignited by hope, but belief then brings in the facts and
28:37
the evidence because you're moving now, and belief just further regnites the alignment,
28:44
creates a greater confidence. And to me, it's the rational side of energy.
28:48
It's what sets the energy, and motion creates that momentum. And you
28:52
know the old added success breeds success. So when you're in this belief stage,
28:56
I think people dream bigger, right because now it's like this, I
29:00
can't fail, yeah, you know. And I don't think it's any different
29:03
in a sports team. I don't think it's any different in a band.
29:07
You know. I kind of say when you get in that lane and just
29:11
you have that trust and everybody's using their intuition, and then belief comes in
29:15
because it's proven now and so you have this incredible foundation and people dream and
29:22
we're dreamers as humans. Otherwise there's no evolution, right And in a company,
29:26
if you can unlock that and let that guide you again, the business
29:33
is the output of all of these. That's why Berbery said, we have
29:37
soft strategies and we have hard strategies. These were the soft strategies that really
29:41
were the secret behind that company's turn around. That's amazing. And the belief
29:47
then just keeps pushing on the flywheel of momentum because when people believe, they
29:52
problem solve quicker, when they believe communication flows easier. When they believe,
29:57
as you mentioned manego, the higher arm and the org chart becomes almost irrelevant.
30:02
Absolutely, that's that's amazing. Well, and they care more, They
30:06
care more about each other, they care more about the impact. It emotionally
30:10
just takes everybody to a different level. So much to unpack. Angela,
30:15
thank you so much and to our podcast listener, she's going to be back
30:17
next month. But as we land the plan on this episode, and you've
30:22
already answered this a little bit, what happens when this works, when all
30:26
of this collectiveness, when these three things come together, what happens what happens
30:30
in the organization. Yeah, we talked a little bit about it, but
30:33
I think that it's kind of like the finale of a show. We used
30:37
to call it the level of creative wisdom, because again it was now balanced
30:42
between tremendous dreaming and tremendous innovation, but partnered with the wisdom and the success
30:48
all that we had gathered, et cetera. So and we wanted at this
30:52
level because it is when a team is just so united. And it's funny
30:57
because they're not just united, they're happy, they're fulfilled, they're inspired.
31:03
And what I used to say was, and it was my favorite part of
31:07
the job, they weren't just happy at work, I know because the work
31:12
was so fulfilling for them on so many levels. I know they were better
31:18
parents, better friends, better sons and daughters. I know that when they
31:25
left us, they were better people, and they gave and did more in
31:30
their communities because they felt firsthand what it was like to be a part of
31:36
something so rich. Wow. And if they were smart, and they were,
31:41
they took trust and intuition and belief home. Yes, because that's how
31:47
you raise great kids, and that's how you develop and maintain a strong relationship.
31:52
So your gift to your employees, just with that paradigm through which you
31:55
did business was a gift to them and a gift to the world. And
31:59
now our audience understands a little bit better why you were hesitant to leave all
32:04
of that to go to Apple because and we don't have time to jump into
32:07
it today, because I would imagine you can sort of yes or no.
32:10
You felt the weight of Okay, now I've got to do this all over
32:15
again with a much larger company that has its own culture. But if you
32:23
couldn't do it that way, you weren't going to do it at all.
32:27
And that is fantastic. Angela. Thank you so much. I'm looking forward
32:30
to our conversation next month. It's been an honor. Thank you. That
32:35
is all the time we have for today. To all of our podcast listeners,
32:37
thank you for joining us, and make sure you visit Andy Stanley dot
32:40
com. That's Andy Stanley dot com where you can download the Leadership Podcast application
32:45
guide that includes a summary of this discussion along with questions for reflection and group
32:51
discussion, and make sure you join us next month as we have Angela back
32:53
to talk about moral leadership on the Andy Stanley Leadership Podcast.