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Stop Blaming Your People: Fix the Systems That Are Breaking Your Business with Adam Ward · Profitable Christian Business

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Hello and welcome to another episode of the Prophet Christian Business Podcast.
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I'm your host, Doug Greyhouse, and today's guest is Adam Ward.
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Adam is an organizational architect.
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Oh see, I'm gonna have to start over.
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Because it's going too slow.
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I have to speed up just a little.
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I think I want it about there.
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all right, so I'm gonna have to do my own internal countdown.
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Sorry about that.
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Five, four, three, two, one.
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Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Proximal Christian Business Podcast.
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I'm your host, Doug Greathouse, and today's guest is Adam Ward.
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Adam Ward is an ec organizational architect, executive coach, best selling author, and transformation expert.
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He has more than twenty five years experience helping leaders eliminate organizational friction and lock the hidden potential inside their teams.
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He's also the creator of the Flow State Advantage, where he helps analytical and systems driven leaders build high.
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Performance organizations that execute predictably without burning out their best people.
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Adam is also the Amazon best-selling author of Lean Design and Healthcare, a keynote speaker, and an Ultraman finisher.
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Today we're going to talk about leadership, systems, execution, organizational friction, scaling without chaos, and how to build a high-performance organization that can actually
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sustain its success.
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Adam, welcome to the Prophet Christian Business Podcast.
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Doug, thanks for having me.
1:21
Glad to be here.
1:23
Well, I I I wanna dive right in with Ultraman Finisher.
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I don't even know what that is.
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Um I I I saw it in your bio and I'm like I'm curious about what that is.
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And um it sounds I'm I'm gonna kinda go where I think what I think it is.
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It has something to do with some ultimate physical feat.
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Um that may or may not be true, but I'd like more information.
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And then also when you after you tell me about what it is, tell me about how that training goes applies to kind of what you do as a profession.
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Yeah, no, think that's great.
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And Ultraman, yeah, that so in order to enroll for an Ultraman, you have to compete, you have to do an Ironman first.
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So if you haven't done an Ironman in the previous 12 months, you can't apply for an Ultraman and Ultraman is a three day triathlon.
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Day one is uh a 10k swim, 6.2 miles and then a 90 mile bike.
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And then the next day is 172 mile bike.
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And then day three is a double marathon.
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So they give a time limit each day and then you get back on and go, you know, afterwards, you have to have a pacer with you and a support crew.
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They don't do any support with you.
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Not on the bike and not allowed to have it on the bike.
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But yeah, that was that was fun.
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I don't know, I think finished eighth place maybe there's 20 or 30 of us.
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Wow.
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was an extreme challenge and it was fun, it good to do that.
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I don't do triathlons anymore, but that was kind of the top of the triathlon peak for me anyway.
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well before you go into like that raised some questions for me.
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So before you go into how you applied that training for that to kind of what you do, I I I have a friend that does Ironmans, right?
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So I thought that man, that's that's really something.
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But Ultraman's kind of above Iron Man is is what is what you're saying.
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So
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doing three in a row.
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It's basically what that, yeah, it's very similar to doing three in a, back to back to back, so yeah.
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Do you happen to know how many people um nationwide have been in in Altraman?
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people have climbed Everest than, and this was 10 years ago.
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So I think maybe it was under 750 total at that time that had finished one of these.
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And I mean, I would have, I'd have 750 people in my heat and an Ironman.
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Like, so it's just, it's, I mean, I love Ironman races.
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I think they're fun too, but you can get those done in about 10 hours.
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Hmm.
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Man, that that is a major life accomplishment.
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So congratulations on on that.
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And and not just not just finishing, but finishing eighth.
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And like yeah, I think you said there was almost like twenty to thirty of you.
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Yeah.
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Um, so that that's that's really incredible.
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Now can you kind of go into how some of that training kind of applies to to what you do and what you how you work with clients?
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Yeah, so my big thing is uh organizational transformation.
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So establishing a new way of operating.
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And it's usually when people see the revenue line and the profit line diverging, and they know they're in trouble, or they want to grow faster, but they don't have capital, or they
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can't hire people because they're not on the market anymore.
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uh Or they're just won't get approved.
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So when I think about endurance racing, I started as a couch potato.
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uh
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grossly overweight.
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ah If someone would, you know, been like go run a mile, I'd been like, yeah, give me a give me a break.
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Like that's not happening.
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And I was an athlete in college, but like as an adult, nothing and so my boss was like, Hey, let's do a triathlon as a group this summer.
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I just started laughing.
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It was a little sprint triathlon hour and a half but you know, it was a good one and
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I finished it and I got addicted.
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So when I look at corporate transformations, it's the same thing.
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A lot of them are just bloated sitting on the couch, not mobile.
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And a lot of companies will go in and be like, do it Ironman.
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And it's like, I'm not gonna do a mile.
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So I really like to find out where the client sits before I ask them how far to run or bike or swim or whatever.
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And there are multiple
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disciplines within a business too.
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I kind of look at them in four different disciplines and triathlons got the three plus transitions.
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So there's kind of four areas there and so depending on where they want to work and is in the intensity that I bring for that stage.
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That that's that's that's pretty cool.
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So I wanna dive into your book.
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I believe it's titled Lean Design in Healthcare.
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so do you primarily work with healthcare organizations most mostly?
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I've been in I've actually worked in 18 different industries now and it's been good to have that breadth and see that they're essentially the same 80 % the same 20 % variation.
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The reason I wrote a book in healthcare is a publisher approached me at a conference and you know, listen to uh something that spoke on and said, Would you mind writing a book for
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us?
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We don't have anything like that in healthcare.
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And so that's where the book came from.
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I could have written in any industry, um wrote in healthcare.
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I do really like working in healthcare.
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uh It's much more uh satisfying, I think, when you can see the cancer patient or take your pick, whatever patient being impacted.
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I like business too, I like big business.
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So don't get me wrong, anything's a challenge, but that healthcare kind of has a special place in my heart.
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spend a lot of time.
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So um the subtitle Lean Design, can you kind of go into into that a little bit more?
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Like what does lean design mean?
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Yeah, so I, the publisher picked that title.
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I wasn't really crazy about it.
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um Essentially, what it does is it, it's a, it's an industry that doesn't have embedded R &D.
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So if you go to a hospital, most hospitals with over 3000 of them in the US and every healthcare system different, different countries, but in the US, very little hospitals
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have their own development teams.
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So they're
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They'll buy a new CT, do what it does, or they'll buy a new surgical gear and do what it does, but they don't develop new care models.
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So the book is about creating care models for new care models for patients and how to do that if you don't have that functionality.
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um Lean Design at the time when the publisher picked that was basically saying you have to marry the needs of the customer, which would be the needs of the patient, with the service
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that you're offering.
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And then how do you go from idea to launch as quickly and as effectively as possible?
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So that would be the lean design element of it.
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Most of the times organizations will design something.
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There isn't even a market for it.
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Or by the time they get it to market, the market's come and gone.
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So we talk about lean design.
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My number one thing is actually designing something the customer wants.
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So s so if you could name it again, do you have a name off the top of your head that you would rename the book to?
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Yeah, healthcare innovators.
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So I created a workbook and healthcare innovators would be what I would rename it to.
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'Cause what went to my mind when um creating that lean design was um taking it like you you mentioned bloat before, right?
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That a lot of organizations go into are bloated.
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So to me, leaning it down um to what if what the practical and the most applicable things that the business does, right, and operating the most efficiently there.
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Um it so is that something I on the right track?
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Yeah, I really like application of lean and repetitive environments.
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uh So I created the flow state uh methodology because there's a lot of practitioners out there that will only do one.
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Like they're just a lean person or they're just a design thinking person or they're just an agile person.
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And really depending on what phase of the service or product is or the maturation of the organization.
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multiple frameworks will actually work.
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So you're absolutely right.
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There's bloat, I call it friction.
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So how do you remove the friction or remove the bloat and lean has a really good application in daily operations.
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It doesn't have a very good application in sales, some people would argue against me and it doesn't have a great application in development.
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um There's much better stuff on the development side.
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But yeah, you're right, you can lean out or defriction any of those, you know,
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phases of, um or places in the organization.
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Uh I'm gonna ask the fill in the blank question and then I'm gonna have we do a fill in the blank question on every one of these podcast episodes because I'm always um excited to
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see what what the answer is at the at the end of the blank.
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But I already have the follow-up questions formulating in my head after asking this.
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So uh give me one second.
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I lost my place a little bit.
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Um so a company knows it has a system problem rather than a people problem when blank.
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A system problem rather than a people problem.
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So right off the bat, if you're blaming people, you have a system problem.
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em Because most people, the vast majority, I mean, this is almost 100 percent, they don't go to work thinking how they can sabotage their work.
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They go to work thinking, how can I do the best thing?
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And if your process or your system is properly designed, that person knows what winning is when they come in.
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They know the job to be able to win and they know what they accomplished when they leave for the day.
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And if they're having to rely on heroism or they're having to rely on phone a friend, the system's broken.
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so a reasonable person should be able to come in, do those things and be successful every day.
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If you're not, then you have a system.
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I'm I'm sure you've heard this quote before that um you don't rise to the level I I'm not even gonna s quote it correctly, but you don't rise to level of success, you fail to the
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level of your systems, right?
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So is is it easy to how much time when I know it this is gonna be contextual, it all depends, but how much time does it take you to when you go into a a business to notice
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what systems are broken?
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So I've been doing this for about 20 years now.
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I can see it in about 30 seconds.
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um Yeah, it doesn't take long.
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I have to spend more time to absorb examples, to play back to them, to prove to them that I know what I'm talking about.
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But usually it takes about 30 seconds.
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I can be fully confident in two minutes um and usually with a question or two.
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um
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I don't know if you're going to ask this or not, what I look for is stacks.
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So if I see stacks of things, it could be stacks of inventory, could be stacks of emails, could be stacks of meetings on meetings.
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em Anytime I see that, I know that there's part of the business that's stagnant, that's not being worked on.
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And that's a system failure because the best businesses don't have stacks.
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Um here's here's a question that I think is I I think our listeners are going to get a lot out of, especially um they may be experiencing this and not knowing which direction to go.
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A lot of companies they don't have one broken system, they have lots of broken systems, right?
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Um I'm I I I I bet it's not typical for you to go into a business and just see one broken system.
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It's it's usually multiple broken systems.
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So from a priority standpoint, which systems uh
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And and I I hope I'm gonna ask this correctly that you can answer it well.
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Which systems take priority when you go into a business?
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Yeah, think so.
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Oh, usually at the end of the day, you've got an executive who's a couple of decades to get to their role, right?
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And, you know, if that could be a man, it could be a woman.
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And if we're if we get to that point, our risk aversion increases, right?
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We're wanting to be less risky with the things we do.
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And we want to be able to test stuff.
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So they have a natural inclination for things that they're willing to do right off the bat or not willing to do based on how they got there.
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And most of the time, it requires a small area to be tested and proven before it gets spread.
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there's a bunch of tools that all the different methodologies would use to ah make those opportunities visible.
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And I actually like them, but I wanted something even simpler.
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So I just created this little 30 question questionnaire and said, hey, answer these and then executives, you can tell which one ah is something important to you.
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So I would.
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That what I would pick isn't necessarily the one that they should pick because of their predilections for how they got to their role.
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So I'd like to give them options to say.
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Here are the things you could work on.
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Which one of these look best for you to be able to tackle now?
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So it could be processes, it could be people, it could be alignment, it could be strategy.
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uh It could be these different things.
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I know where I'd like to go, but I much rather have them be bought in and want them to try something.
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And then once we do that, then maybe go to the one that I think is gonna be best for that business.
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so where where I thought that might lead to, and excuse me for my cough, where I thought that might lead to is something you brought up um earlier on, which was the revenue and
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and profit, right?
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I thought as far as system priority is getting those back in line.
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I thought that might be where but can you kind of explain that process?
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Maybe there's a system that has to be fixed even before you get there.
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Well, yeah, so I'm going to give you an example.
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This is a great example, right?
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So this is my smart scale.
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Right.
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I get on this every morning.
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It tells me my fat percentage tells me why wait.
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This is just an indicator of the effort that I've put in in the past days, weeks, months, whatever.
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So profit and revenue are this scale.
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Right.
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It's just it's a measurement from how well we're doing processes.
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So what are the processes that we have to do?
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What are my macronutrients?
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How often am I exercising?
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ah You know, am I doing intermittent fasting?
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Am I like avoiding certain, you know, inflammatory foods?
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So revenue and profit are is something that we measure as a result of those actions that we're doing.
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Absolutely.
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I would say, I mean, I was talking to another host a couple of weeks ago.
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Businesses exist to increase shareholder wealth.
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Got it, fine.
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If we're doing that well, I mean, if we're making money, we're doing it well.
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But the focus should be on the product or the service that we're getting the customer and doing that as good as possible, which means we need to make our people as successful as
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possible.
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So there's this multi-tier, right?
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It goes down from like, what am I eating the people?
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Like how am I exercising the processes?
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And then the results to scale.
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Have you ever seen the scenario where a business was doing well revenue and profit wise?
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But because uh but that revenue and profit actually masked some of the internal problems.
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They were doing well because of of maybe like a one-off type of thing, but they're they weren't seeing the system problems until like there's a waterfall coming up and they're
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about to go off of it.
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Have you ever seen a scenario like that?
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Yeah, never.
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I mean, money masks everything, right?
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So when you're printing money and a lot of times I'll go in places and they'll be like, man, we have to pinch corners because we're measuring versus last year.
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And then they have a record announcement on, know, we made 300 million or we made, you know, a billion dollars or, whatever the number is for the quarter.
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And everyone's like, well, why are we, why do we think we're in trouble?
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But yeah, you're right.
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So the presence of money definitely masks and the different industries.
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So if you're in the financial industry, mean, insurance companies and financial institutions, it is like they're just like swimming in cash.
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But if you go to like a nonprofit or health care, you know, there's a barely breaking even to, you know, to exist for the, you know, for the following year.
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But yeah, you're right.
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No, it masks money masks.
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No question.
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So is is it a little harder when you go into those type of businesses to diagnose, or is it still just as easy?
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No, diagnosis is the same.
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I think what it comes down to is the humility of the leader and the desire of the leader.
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So does the leader trying to ride their career out or is the leader still trying to make a name for themselves?
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Right, if they're still trying to make a name for themselves or they're just like, hey, Maxwell talk, who, I don't remember, James Posner is like, if you're unsatisfied with the
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status quo, that's like the leadership challenge.
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Like that's your number one thing.
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You're dissatisfied with the status quo.
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So if you've got a leader that's dissatisfied with the status quo, then you're good.
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You can fix stuff.
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But if they're not dissatisfied, you're not getting past step one.
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Wi with your particular business, is it usually a a leader that knows that their business in trouble that reaches out to you?
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Or is it you knowing that they're it probably could go both ways, or is it you knowing that this business needs my help?
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I will never push myself on a business.
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um If they're not seeing the issue, right, if they're not standing on that scale and saying, I need to make a change, doesn't matter.
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Like how many times you go to the doctor, like exercise and eat healthy, it's like just goes one in one ear out the other ear.
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And until you have a heart attack or until you all of sudden are diabetic, a lot of people won't, aren't gonna make that change until they get some dire news.
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And that's the same with the organization.
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it's really, for me personally, if the leader's not coming to me, the amount of effort that we have to do to go from couch potato to Ironman, it's just never gonna happen.
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So I I love to give the listeners and the viewers a practical step.
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So is there a way that they can that whoever's listening or watching can g like do an internal evaluation of their business?
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Can you give them some tips on look for broken systems?
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I I think you kinda alluded to it with the stacks earlier.
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Yeah, the stacks is a big thing.
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And Doug, I do have a free diagnostic on my website they can they can use and anyone can use it any industry, any size business.
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So that's an easy thing to look up.
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But if you want to go a step deeper, something practical, the stacks for me is always the easiest thing to check for.
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Look at a desk, look at a work area, look at your just open just look at the windows.
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How many windows do you have open on your
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or on your screen, how like, do you have time for a bio break in a day?
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How many times are you double or triple booked?
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Like there's all these things that you can do.
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Another practical step that I find is what is the ratio between people and projects or people and initiatives?
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And so many times, I say so many times, every single client I've ever worked for has way more projects, way more great ideas than they can deliver.
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And if the mission,
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and the strategy of the organization is not clear, people will work on whatever they think is right.
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the leader's job, number one, is where are we going?
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And so many times, the leaders are usually operational people that came up.
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Operations is not about the future.
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Operations about delivering today.
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And when you transition into the executive, uh and I love Marshall Goldsmith's book, What Got You Here, won't get you there.
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You have to shift your thinking.
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You have to go to future only.
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Jack Welch talked about his 20 years as CEO.
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He's like, I just repeated the same thing everywhere I went over and over and over.
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This is what we're doing.
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Number one in the world in your business.
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so leaders, they need to be crystal clear on where they're headed and why.
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And then all your projects and stuff can align under that.
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And then, of course, the presence of stacks.
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Those are two really practical things that people can look at every single day.
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love that you brought up the the Jack Welch thing because it he basically took the blueprint, the blueprint up the the it it works everywhere, right?
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So he just took the blueprint with him.
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Um do you find that a lot of the systems break down because they leaders go off the blueprint?
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Yeah.
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So there's a, uh, you know, whether you call it an SOP, whether you call it standard work, whether you call it, you know, defined, you know, work breakdown structure, a lot of
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places won't have it at all.
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And then if they have it, they don't follow it.
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And then if they don't, if they do follow it, is it working?
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And then if it is working, when did you update it?
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Like, when did you make it better?
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So I'm a huge racing fan.
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And uh Formula One, Spanish Grand Prix this weekend, know, their pit times need to be two, two and a half seconds.
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Those teams are always working for tenths of a second because they know they could lose an entire place and some tracks you can't pass, you're going to be stuck behind the person.
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So they're constantly refining the pit stop, constantly refining the pit stop.
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And we have we have entire businesses that don't even have a procedure, let alone following it, let alone improving it.
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And so
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I'd say if you're not and it's a repetitive process, it needs to be a documented thing.
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And this goes into employee hiring.
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How long does it take to bring an employee up to speed to be able to do that?
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You go into Taco Bell, Cock gun, sour cream comes out, one shot, you're done.
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You're done, guess how much sour cream goes on it.
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And so they make that as simple and as repetitive and as easy as possible, because they're turnovers over 50 % in some of those fast food restaurants.
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Wow.
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Um I I I wanna get to to how the question about burning people out, but before that, um there was another qu maybe I'm gonna ask that burnout question because the other question
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I thought was really good, but it kinda lost on me and know it's gonna come back.
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So um I I remember now.
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So before we get to the burnout question, so startups, right?
25:04
I I happen to talk to a lot of star startups deal with a lot of startups and kind of what you were just explaining seems like, you know, once you get started, it could
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the a lot of those type of things that you're talking about could fall through the cracks.
25:15
Do you is that kind of your experience?
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Have you worked with startups that kinda got to a certain point and they forgot to do a lot of things?
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I would say it's probably the number one weakness of a startup.
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The thing that makes a great entrepreneur is not the same person that makes a sustainable growth business.
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They're two different skill sets.
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You've got a dreamer and you've got a scaler.
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And very rarely do you have this.
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So you look at the traditional businesses that have done that in the past and there's always been that partnership, right?
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There's been the one side visionary and the other side guy making it work.
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So there's at some point,
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I think that the CEO should always be talking about the future.
25:55
if you don't make the systems and we saw this with with Tesla, right?
25:59
Elon Musk doing great, you know, making stuff, but their factories are awful.
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Their quality on their products like it's just been really bad.
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They're so cool people buy them anyway.
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um But they got to a point where where it caught up with them.
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And it's the same thing will happen.
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I see it with startups all the time.
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you have to transition from a startup mentality to a production mentality.
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And that's where I think the lean would be the number one tool that startups don't start soon enough.
26:33
Hm.
26:35
So again, I think
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an artisan effort every single day because the growth is so fast, right?
26:45
I I I I I have a question in regards to that and again I believe it's contextual um but maybe we could give some parameters around it.
26:54
So the founder, how what at what stage, at what point, um should he look for that CEO?
27:01
Yeah, I think that's great depending on his skill set, right?
27:05
I love the table groups, working genius model.
27:10
Pat, that's Patrick Lynch, Yoni's group, they have the working genius model, they use the acronym widget.
27:17
And so like widget, you know, is like at the one end, you got wonder, right?
27:22
At the other end, I don't get transactional, I can't remember, that's not me, I'm not on the at that end.
27:27
But when
27:30
I think you need to fill the widget before you fill the CEO, right?
27:35
And so the COO may be the GET at the end and the CEO may be the WID at the beginning.
27:45
So I think each CEO is gonna be dependent on whether they should hire a CEO or not.
27:50
If they're in the WI area, they should probably stay CEO, just my opinion.
27:54
uh
27:55
Mm-hmm.
27:56
if they're weak on the GT, they need to hire probably a COO first.
28:01
Or if that's where they like to operate, then they probably should get a CEO because the future's got to keep getting planned and thought of.
28:09
I know that's not a traditional answer, but like, I think best is to think that way.
28:14
So, um I I am for I think we have rewind moments and there's already been some rewind moments, but I I like to call them rewind moments and I think that's one of the one of
28:24
these times is go back and listen to what Adam just said and then go do some research on widget, right?
28:30
Um and and you'll get and you'll get some more information there because I think that's very valuable if you're in the early stages of of a business to know when it's time.
28:40
Um and just know to know your skill set first and foremost and where you where you fit so that you know the right hire um from there.
28:48
So it's really good.
28:49
Um let's go let's go to that question I was gonna ask about burnout because one of the that's one like uh you help f uh I'm I'm I'm ad I'm assuming, but I'm not sure I'm
29:00
assuming correctly.
29:01
So when you go in and help them fix the systems, you're also helping them s they're going to start scaling more from from that um because the systems are better.
29:11
But in that, how do you how do you fix these things without people burning out, I guess is the is the question.
29:17
So I think, so I think that there's, there's such, it's so much, it's so loaded.
29:22
The fact that you would ask that this way.
29:23
So my perspective is, and my results always are, I actually flipped the burnout on its head.
29:30
So people are burned out.
29:32
put the system in and they're less burned out, even though they're working more for a couple of reasons.
29:38
So number one, an employee just wants to feel that they're adding value and that they're, you know,
29:46
being able to do the best job they can, right?
29:49
So they're getting feedback, they know they're valuable, they know they're part of, like you can go look up Harvard's research on this, there's some phenomenal research on
29:56
employee satisfaction.
29:58
So many times systems are set up where that people, the people can't achieve that and they get a high level of ah job versus capability mismatch.
30:11
So I'll use healthcare as an example.
30:13
You go see a doctor because you want the differential diagnosis based on your systems.
30:18
What did the lab say?
30:19
What did the imaging say?
30:21
What did your symptoms say?
30:22
You probably have this.
30:25
So you want your doctor spending all of their time in that.
30:29
And that's actually where they want to spend their time.
30:31
They want to be talking to the patients.
30:33
They want to be figuring this out.
30:34
They want to be sharing that.
30:36
Now the doctor has to go and they have to fill.
30:39
figure out this complex billing system, which we call an electronic medical record.
30:43
And they're spending increasingly more time on this and they're getting burned out because that's not the way they went to med school.
30:51
We're sticking them on this administrative tool.
30:54
So people aren't getting burned out because of the scale of the output.
30:58
They're getting burned out because there's a mismatch between what either they were hired to do or what they were trained to do and what they're ending up having to do because the
31:07
systems aren't optimized.
31:09
We don't ask the frontline what should be fixed about their work.
31:14
Leaders tell them what needs to be fixed.
31:16
Ask the frontline how to fix their job.
31:19
Let them fix their job and burnout will go down.
31:23
they're taking ownership.
31:24
I love that.
31:25
Um, and and it gives them again more pride in in their in their job.
31:30
They're all on mission together, right?
31:32
They're not just a cog in the machine, they feel like they're on mission.
31:36
So well put.
31:40
I I I haven't met many entrepreneurs that aren't goal setters.
31:44
So I'm I especially you being an ultra ultraman finisher.
31:47
Um, we have a segment on the show because we have a a goal setting the goal getting app.
31:53
where I like to ask about um your particular the way you set goals and also give some practical advice.
32:00
So if you could kinda go into kind of your goal setting mentality.
32:04
Yeah, so I think so if I'm working with the leader of a business and again, I talked about the future.
32:12
I think they need to be thinking about two goals.
32:14
They need to be thinking three to five years from now.
32:16
If the industry is switching fast, probably three years.
32:18
If it's a little slower industry, maybe five years.
32:20
And then they need to think a year from now.
32:22
And what I find on those goals is people always ah
32:28
underestimate what they can do in the three to five year and overestimate what they can do in the one year.
32:35
And it's bizarre to me, because it kind of feels upside down.
32:40
the closer you get to putting ink on paper, the more afraid they are they are to deliver.
32:48
I know a lot of people say go do a b hag, go pick some crazy goal or go pick a smart goal or
32:56
I would say this, if you're a leader, you shouldn't be relying on a complete data set.
33:02
If you have a complete data set, you don't need your decision-making ability.
33:06
A robot can do that, Robots do that every single day.
33:10
Your ability as a leader is based on deciding despite the unknowns.
33:16
And intuitively, you should know where the market's going.
33:19
You should know where the customer's going.
33:21
And you should be setting an aggressive goal that people can rally behind.
33:25
in order to achieve that.
33:27
So many times I see leaders kind of being way too risk averse, setting the bar way too low.
33:33
And then there's no expectations on the on the people.
33:36
As a junior in high school, we lost in the national championship, the soccer, and it was very devastating for us.
33:45
We did not set our goal the following year to finish second in the nation again.
33:50
Right.
33:51
We set our goal to be first and
33:54
You know, and so many leaders set the goal to be second.
33:57
They're like, hey, seconds, pretty good.
33:59
It's better than everybody in the nation except one team.
34:03
And so I just challenge leaders to be more aggressive and allow your people to prove themselves.
34:12
It's don't don't think you're doing them any favors by having easier goals.
34:18
It's not not fair, but you can't have completely unrealistic goals.
34:21
And I also like
34:23
You have to celebrate more.
34:25
So what?
34:26
I didn't hit my weight target.
34:27
I'm 15 pounds lighter than I was before.
34:31
That's a celebration, even though I'm not 18 pounds, whatever the thing is.
34:35
Yeah, it's it's the whole aim for aim for the stars and you'll hit the moon, right?
34:41
Yeah.
34:43
your trajectory, you're you're you're doing the things to try and hit the stars and they're gonna help they're you're gonna make progress regardless.
34:50
Yeah, well, and a lot of cultures are like, well, you didn't hit the stars.
34:53
You know, you're terrible.
34:55
and that's you can't, it can't be a pejorative punitive environment.
34:59
Like goals should be like, performance increase should be celebrated regardless.
35:05
Yeah.
35:05
Uh I love all that.
35:06
Can can we can we switch gears a little bit and talk about faith a little bit?
35:11
All right.
35:13
All right.
35:13
So how has um your faith played a role in in how you help businesses and how you go about um everything that you do?
35:23
Well, so fundamentally I would say this.
35:29
I try to quote, love my neighbor as much as I can.
35:36
So I'm not going in as a know-it-all.
35:38
I'm not going in as the, you I'll fix everything.
35:44
nor am I going in as, you know.
35:49
You know it all like this is a journey we're going to experience together.
35:53
I'm going to treat you as I should treat any any single person.
35:57
And there's going to be honesty and there's going to be challenging.
36:01
And you're like, I want to model Jesus behavior as close as I can.
36:06
And if I can do that, then we can make progress together.
36:10
The second I deviate from that.
36:12
Right.
36:12
And the second I start going into not fruits of the spirit, but fruits of the flesh, I'm off target.
36:19
And I don't I don't get the results I want.
36:21
So from a faith perspective, if I'm not taking that act like Jesus would want me to now, I'm not saying I act like Jesus all the time.
36:28
But like that, that's my fundamental approach when I'm going when I'm going in.
36:32
And then I try to exude positivity regardless.
36:36
um And people always why do you smile so much?
36:40
Like, why are you always happy?
36:42
And so I like that, you know, those are two big areas that I really try to.
36:48
take a perspective on.
36:50
I I love that.
36:51
Um and again, rewind moment, rewind everything that Adam just said and and apply it to how you deal with um everyone that comes in contact with you in your business.
37:02
Um, because uh you bear fruit and it'll bear fruit.
37:07
it's really, really good.
37:08
It's so tempting to be unethical and immoral to get ahead.
37:12
I can't tell you how many times I've wanted to do that.
37:15
And then, you know, as it's saying, my dad always used to growing up and 10,000 years, what's it going to matter?
37:21
Right.
37:22
And so only I am responsible responsible for my character.
37:26
And if I can't win doing it, honestly doing it, you know, I'm going say it has to be fair, but it has to be like my following the
37:37
biblical principles, then I should be OK with it.
37:41
If I have to deviate from the biblical principles, I should not be OK and I should not expect good long term results.
37:48
I know that's kind of tough to hear, but.
37:51
No, no, it it's real good.
37:52
Can can we talk about control and trust and and what I mean by that is um there are a lot of things in business that sometimes are out of our control, right?
38:04
Um and just like we have to trust in the Lord, right?
38:08
We have to trust in the Lord, the Lord for provision.
38:10
And I know like we like business people like to deal a lot in certainties, right?
38:17
And knowing like put put this and this together and then this will happen.
38:21
Right.
38:21
Um so can you talk about i is there anything that comes to mind when when I bring up those those terms control what you can control and what you have to trust?
38:32
Yeah, so we know what Hebrews 11 six, right about faith and you know, and what it is and or Hebrews 11 one and that is the essence of Christianity is the faith.
38:44
At some point, we as Christian leaders know that God told us to go down this path.
38:51
For whatever reason, and we're going down that path so we can keep that as a truth that we know that we know we're supposed to follow.
38:59
And I had my counselor recently.
39:00
tell me when I thought it was so brilliant.
39:02
Cause I said, yeah, but I just want to know how long this is going to go on.
39:06
And he goes, Adam, that is not the Christian faith.
39:09
The Christian faith is you get up the next day and you say, Jesus, what am I supposed to do today?
39:15
And I'm like, I don't know when I forgot that sometime between I turned eight and 52, like there's some point and I like, man, shoot, that is a really business thought.
39:27
Um, that was like, yeah.
39:29
I trust God that he set my direction and I have to trust God that he's leading me in the right way today.
39:35
And if I'm not listening, I'm relying on my own.
39:38
And I had a friend a few years ago, we're doing a lot of nonprofit work in the city of Columbus and we're trying to set strategy, we're trying to set mission and a guy comes in
39:46
and he goes, look.
39:49
You want to know what you should do?
39:51
Let's fast and pray for two days straight.
39:54
I'm like.
39:57
Okay, mic drop, you're right.
39:58
Let me put the whiteboard down.
40:00
So as Christian leaders, it is easy for me to set a goal to worry about things, to say this is not happening.
40:07
Or I lost one of my franchises due to COVID, like gone, just out of business.
40:13
And that was completely out of my control.
40:16
Nothing I could do, running it great.
40:18
Just there was no employment base because of the incentives for unemployment.
40:23
So we look at
40:25
those things and we have to say God has a plan in that.
40:28
Anyway, and do we trust him and do we have faith that he's gonna give us something great or not?
40:34
So those are very, very challenging things to do, but if we're listening to him, we can't go wrong.
40:42
Amen.
40:43
Amen.
40:44
So well said.
40:45
Thank you for that.
40:46
And um, so both these faith questions are our are rewind moments.
40:50
Um because I I love that your that your friend said that.
40:54
Let's, you know, put put the whiteboard down, let's let's fast and pray.
40:58
Um and uh I I'm gonna follow a question to that because I I didn't really hear an outcome from that.
41:05
How did you f feel after doing that, putting the whiteboard down and and fasting and praying for
41:11
was it for two days?
41:14
So, mean, think about this.
41:17
Most of us don't like to fast, right?
41:19
And then so many times, the Pharisees made fun of Jesus for not fasting, but he said, this type only happens from prayer and fasting.
41:28
And so when we get to these big hairy problems and we don't feel like doing it, whatever the spiritual impact to denying food to our body,
41:43
And I also like to make sure spiritually I'm forgiven and like, OK, God, forgive me for this.
41:51
And the combination of those, his voice becomes so loud.
41:55
It's almost overwhelming, like emotionally overwhelming.
41:59
Yes.
42:00
But like you think about Moses or you think about Elisha or you think about all these things and it's like and God said and God said and God said.
42:06
you're like, how did they know God said?
42:09
And well, you know it, you know it.
42:11
And the prayer and fasting just.
42:15
It becomes like God said, becomes so crystal clear.
42:18
I, I, it just worked.
42:20
It just works.
42:21
I don't know.
42:21
It just works.
42:24
I I wanna go down this this trail just a little bit because I I I run a Friday minute's Bible study and um we talk about these type of things a lot and um I feel like when you
42:37
get out of out of whack for lack of a better word right now, like you're you're not consistent in your spiritual walk.
42:45
You start to lose God's voice, you're not hearing God's voice as much as you need to.
42:51
And I I don't know where if I'm just have a statement or just have a question.
42:54
I'm just kinda speaking out loud here, but just how important it is to on a daily basis seek his seek his presence to seek his voice.
43:02
Um, because it's going to keep you from a lot of the pitfalls that may be coming ahead of you.
43:07
Have you experienced that type of thing?
43:09
man, I tell you, I've had two really low points in my life from falling away or stopping the listening, whatever, you know, whether it was sin induced, or whether it was just
43:23
complacency or apathy or relying on my own skill set.
43:27
And both of those times had dire consequences.
43:33
Because I because I am an endurance athlete, I can
43:37
And a lot of us leaders can do this.
43:38
Like we can, we can withstand a tremendous amount of work stress goals, issues.
43:46
It's not, it's, it's, we're just, we're, we're, we're built to do that.
43:51
But when you can break that person, the break becomes insane.
43:58
And that happened to me.
44:00
And I ended up having to do full like intensive outpatient.
44:07
recovery, pastoral care, burnout, like didn't work for months.
44:12
And because I had gotten to so much a point on listening and relying on myself and not listening to God and there are times, there are times before that where it was like, yeah,
44:22
I didn't feel good on a Sunday morning or, you know, back when the kids were in the house, like I yelled, maybe I yelled at the kids, but that like that capability as your
44:31
capability grows, it's so easy to not do that.
44:34
But the consequences get so massive.
44:36
And so I would just urge the listeners, like, you know it, the Holy Spirit tells you, right?
44:44
And if he doesn't tell you, maybe he'll tell her spouse or business partner or best friend and usually validate it with someone else on top of you.
44:51
If you're not listening, Balaam and the donkey.
44:53
I hope you don't have a talking donkey, but um like he'll get your attention and take it from me.
45:00
The results can be disastrous if you don't.
45:04
You know, if you don't get it, get it fixed.
45:07
Um one of the one of the warnings I I want to put out here, especially for these people that are um starting to become successful, is that success don't let that lead you away
45:18
from the Lord because once you start to become successful, you start to become more self reliant.
45:22
You're like, I I di I did this, right?
45:25
And you and you stop giving credit to the Lord for for the things that um you've accomplished or or that you've accomplished together.
45:32
Um and I I feel like
45:36
that happens a lot.
45:36
Like a lot of people, okay, uh I did all this, right?
45:40
So
45:42
Yeah, I mean, we can look at a couple of examples in the Bible and it's like that happened.
45:47
And I mean, what happened to Herod?
45:48
He died right after and he's like, he's a god and then dead.
45:52
then, you know, the rich man.
45:54
mean, there's so many examples of where that's really a bad thing for us, for us to do is a natural inclination.
46:02
But I think that's why you like being in a men's Bible group is so important or having an accountability partner, some small group where you can be vulnerable.
46:10
And one of the things I loved about my group that I was in is it was a no judgment share anything.
46:17
And we shared the worst and everybody had the worst.
46:22
And if if we would have been in any other room in any other churchy environment, like we would have been all excommunicated from the church.
46:30
But the reality is we're all dealing with something big.
46:34
And, you know, if we can, if we have the ability to listen to someone else sharing that
46:39
and not judge and still partner beside them, we should be able to have that same thing.
46:43
I think more and more, especially with men, like we don't want to talk about this stuff, but we need to be able to get to that point um where we can share and be shared with and
46:53
work forward together.
46:55
Yeah, uh that type of of group of men is is invaluable.
46:59
And we just actually talked about this that exact same thing this morning.
47:02
It's like one of the problems with with men is our pride.
47:05
We're afraid to exposing our weaknesses to other men or like we we are our we don't have our house in order because you know we're dealing with things, right?
47:15
Um but it's it's funny that it's actually more um it's less weak of you to share it.
47:23
because you're you're actually getting strengthened by someone you may n God may have put that person there too for you to share it with because they went through the exact same
47:31
thing and came out of it.
47:33
So
47:33
I'm a pastor say, I'm just one beggar showing another beggar where to find bread.
47:38
Like, I may be half a step ahead.
47:41
That's it.
47:41
Like, my scripts is like, fall, you know, right behind me.
47:45
I'm not like some person is like, Yeah, I've mastered this.
47:47
Like, no, but yeah, you're right.
47:49
It's Yeah.
47:51
Yeah, so um if you're not part like anyone anyone's listening is if you want to join my my Friday Men's Bible study, just just reach out to me and I'll I'll send you an invite.
48:01
It's nine a.m.
48:02
Eastern time Friday mornings.
48:03
Um I I'd rather have you do that than even do any business with me because um that's that's the most important thing.
48:09
So um awesome.
48:12
Um so let's the first question I have kind of lead people your way is what type of businesses
48:19
do you work with?
48:20
Who should who should we send your way?
48:23
Yeah, I like I talked about earlier, if the revenue and profit lines are diverging and it's inexplicable or you don't have access to, you know, scaling resources like you've had
48:37
a it's become nonlinear at this point.
48:40
Usually that's when people reach out to me.
48:42
uh I typically don't deal with small, smaller uh businesses.
48:51
I certainly have, but usually it's a medium-sized business or large business that would reach out to me.
48:57
um If you just need assessments or a second voice, any size business can do that, but I typically would work with something that has a little scale to it already.
49:19
Okay.
49:19
And and um if somebody's listening and feel like they fit that type of uh of a business, how do they reach out to you?
49:26
Yeah, my website, adammward.com.
49:30
My phone number's on there, my email's on there.
49:32
It's easy to get a hold of me.
49:34
And you mentioned a a resource.
49:36
I think it was a diagnosis resource.
49:38
Um, is that on your website?
49:40
the landing page.
49:41
It's free.
49:43
Click on it.
49:44
It'll ask you your industry and your role and all of that stuff.
49:48
then, yeah, 30 questions and your results are instant.
49:51
It's right on the screen.
49:54
Awesome.
49:54
Awesome.
49:55
Um so I implore you if if you're feel like Adam can can help you and help fix the bottlenecks and the systems in in your business, then reach out to him.
50:06
Uh we'll put the link to his website below and uh fill out that diagnostic and it'll kind of tell you exactly exactly where you're at and um then he'll reach out to see how how or
50:17
if he can help you.
50:17
Um so thanks for providing that Adam.
50:20
Adam, I ask one last question.
50:23
because I never want wisdom left on the cutting room floor.
50:27
Um so this is an open ended question.
50:31
sometimes I feel like the the guest is on the other side is like, I wish he'd asked me this question because I really wanted to wanted to like s share this with people.
50:39
So um this is what what parting wisdom do you have for anyone listening?
50:47
So if I'm talking to a leader, so that could be a division leader, could be a business leader.
50:57
It's so critical to work on ourselves, our integrity, but also to cast the vision for where we're headed.
51:07
And I know I alluded to that a couple of times, but if those two things aren't in place, we can't express expect perpetual perpetual success.
51:19
And you don't need it doesn't need to be a democracy.
51:23
A bunch of people don't have to vote on that and agree on it.
51:25
You're the
51:26
you're the leader, you need to set the direction and then trust God, trust yourself.
51:34
Amen.
51:35
All right.
51:36
Well, thank you so much, Adam.
51:38
And until next time, entrepreneurs, keep moving forward.
51:42
Thanks Doug.