Crucial Talks Podcast

Appreciative Inquiry pursues changes to human systems with a focus on strengths. It is ultimately a method that takes a positive view of making change by focusing on people. People are ultimately the greatest resource of any organization.  In this episode, we get to talk about the search for the lifeblood of our organizations, of the systems we are all a part of. This strength-based search can lead to motivating, positive places to work, live, and play. It gets us out of a deficit-view of our systems where we only see problems to solve and leads us into a positive view where we see innovation and possibility.  Would you rather have an organization that is thought of as a problem to be solved or would you rather have an organization that builds its capacity to fulfill its "why?" Edison's development of the lightbulb, his connection to Henry Ford and Henry Ford hiring a consultant named Frederick Winslow Taylor leads us to understand why people have been treated as parts of a machine. We then get to see why a set of principles that looks at people as the seeds of strength that can be planted in our companies and communities can be a beneficial and positive way to build capacities in our systems. Please subscribe and rate the podcast. I would love to continue to build our community of people interested in having a positive impact on others and themselves. Also, please visit www.crucialtalks.com and connect with me. I am willing to talk with you one-on-one and would love to speak to your organization.

How we interact with others can have either a negative or positive impact on how we can get things done. If we see others as out-group members that we do not share a common goal with, it can cause us to behave differently toward them. The same things apply to how people treat us. In this episode, I explain what happened to me in a meeting.  When the meeting started I thought I was there to work with others in my organization to solve a problem. I was ready to take responsibility for a pretty large mistake. During the meeting, things shift to where the others in the room began to name me and blame me for the mistake. It even went to shaming me. At that point, I actually felt my entire thought process change. I transition from part of a shared group to an out-group member. In this episode, we get to talk about how this can impact individuals, groups, and entire organizations. We discuss the second pillar of the Crucial Talks Podcast, and that is group relationships. If you would like further information, please visit www.crucialtalks.com. I would love to connect with you or speak to your organization.  

Self-Transformation happens throughout our lives. We transform by adopting new roles and assigning behaviors to those roles. As the roles become more important to us, the behaviors we exhibit become more aligned with the roles we have adopted. We have done this since we were kids and continue to do it our entire lives. By understanding the process we have always used to change, we can make a conscious effort to transform who we are and what we want to become. There are four steps to this change process:  First, people define themselves as a member of a distinct group. Second, They learn the behaviors the correlate with that new role. Third, they assign these behaviors to themselves. Fourth, the behavior becomes more normal as the role they have adopted becomes more important to them. We get to see examples from two different movies, Heartbreak Ridge and October Sky. We not only see how this process works, but also get a hint on how to influence others and how we can bring people closer together so that they can work together. For more information or to have me speak at your organization, please visit www.crucialtalks.com and contact me.  

People are a company's biggest resource. Having the right people doing the right work maximizes potential. Jeffrey Davidson talks to us about people, about how teams are built, and what team members need to succeed. One of the first things a leader needs to do is ask "What did I do well? What can I build upon? Where could I have done better?" This shows a vulnerability and builds a pattern of feedback that can: 1. Set an example and 2. Allow teams to learn "As humans, we are social beings." We need to be able to learn to get better. We need to create chances to learn and build learning cultures. Having trust and openness lets everyone learn from each other. Trust is one of the most important parts of a great team, not just their experience, age, or education. "Everyone wakes up, looks in the mirror, and wants to do a good job today." They might make mistakes, but their intentions are good. If we can direct their intentions, we can get great results. The secret to great teams is... Communication! Communicate: 1. What's the meaning? 2. How do we design success? Filter decisions and actions through those two things. No matter what role you play, a shared goal can help people because it allows people to work toward success using their strengths. People will be able to ask themselves if what they are working on is in alignment with their greater goal. We can also help our teams by providing feedback more regularly and personally with empathy. "Understand them and give them regular input." There are seven questions people want to know in teams: 1. What's the purpose? 2. How do we know we're working on the right stuff? 3. When can we declare success? 4. How do we get stuff done? What are our tools and processes? 5. How do we work together? 6. How am I doing? 7. Is it real? For more information from Jeffrey, please visit: www.greatteamsltd.com He also has more information just for podcast listeners: www.greatteamsltd.com/more To contact me with any questions, to have me speak to your organization, or for consulting opportunities, please feel free to reach out through www.crucialtalks.com

Everyone plays roles. In this episode, Rocky Romanella, author of Tighten the Lug Nuts the Principles of Balanced Leadership, Senior Partner at 3 Sixty Management Services, a former leader at UPS, and all-around good guy talks to us about the role of leaders in instilling a legacy of behavior. Rocky's book can be found on Amazon: https://amzn.to/2QFdTXJ This concept is important because the roles people play and behaviors people assign to those roles will guide what they do. The role important at the time is how people make sense of the world around them and then decide what to do. We discuss vision, missions, and goals and the leader's role. We provide three key questions leaders can ask themselves: Who am I? What do I stand for? What won't I compromise? Rocky explains his three principles to balanced leadership including, thinking like a customer, people feeling like valued contributors, and shared ownership. Rocky can be reached at: 3sixtymanagementservices.com His book, Tighten the Lug Nuts: The Principles of Balanced Leadership can be found at: https://amzn.to/2QFdTXJ Please visit www.crucialtalks.com to contact me or book me to speak to your organization.

Mike Sedam interview Nichole Carlson about transformation. Transformation is something we all need to do. One way to transform is to adopt a new role and live up to the behaviors of that role. In this episode, Nichole Carlson talks to us about her transformation as she left her comfort zone; traveled the world; was homeless, but happy; and then found success after she found happiness. She also talks about the need for trust in yourself and how to develop that trust. Nichole can be reached at www.nicholecarlson.com or visit her facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/theNicholeCarlson/ Please visit www.crucialtalks.com for me to speak at your organization or if you would like more information.

The roles people play impact their decisions. They will be more likely to work with others if they don't see the other person as a threat to the group they belong to. This is why it can be a valuable tool to consider the role the other person is playing. When considering the roles of other people, we are trying to "walk a mile in someone else's shoes." We should think about their needs, aspirations, and challenges so that we can communicate in a way that doesn't put them on the defensive. This will increase the chance to create a collaborative environment. As a result, we can create positive momentum because different roles can work toward collective goals. Rather than people butting heads and pushing against each other, they move together in the same direction. For more information or to have me speak to your organization, please contact me at www.crucialtalks.com.

For a number of years, ever since the industrial revolution, people have been on a path where data and analysis was king. People believed that if they had the right data and the right analysis, then the decision would be obvious. However, emotion trumps data every day of the week. We make decisions based on what feels right. We are social, storytelling animals and emotions play a huge role in what we do. The key takeaways we can gain from this are: If we understand the why and how of human decision-making, we can bring our systems to a place beyond the point data analysis, statistics, or policies can bring us. If we can figure out the social dynamics that are driving people’s decisions in our systems, we have a better chance to impact those decisions. We looked at a battle between Spock and Kirk from the 2009 movie, Star Trek. Spock represents the belief that logic and data is king. Kirk shows us that understanding the power of emotion in human decision-making is something we all need. If you would like to contact me or would like me to speak to your organization, please visit www.crucialtalks.com and reach out to me. 

Lagging indicators measure outcomes. Things that have already happened. Leading indicators measure inputs so that we can try to impact outcomes before they happen. Appreciative Inquiry, because it focuses on a strength-based, positive approach to change in human-based systems can help us when we are working on developing leading indicators. It's Mother's Day 2018, which coincidentally falls on Top Gun Day. So in this episode, we get to hear a clip from Top Gun to have a better understanding of lagging indicators (High speed passes over 5 air control towers and 1 Admiral's daughter). To have me speak to your organization or help you with using Appreciative Inquiry to develop leading indicators, please visit www.crucialtalks.com. I'd love to hear from you!

Strong disciplinary programs exist in many workplaces today. It has been a part of our work cultures and is the "goto" framework in many organizations when someone does something wrong. Although we may have been taught to operate this way, discipline can hamper positive discussions that may actually help our organizations get better. If we focus purely on discipline, we are losing out on a tremendous amount of learning. Organizational learning is the key to honing and sharpening what we do. The majority of the human-based systems we work in are fairly stable because we may have reached the pinnacle of what technology and process improvements can do for us. The next phase is human improvement and that takes a framework that can positively impact the people in our systems. Ferris Bueller's discussion with Cameron about Cameron's father's Ferrari give us an opportunity to discuss the role of discipline and how we should try to avoid the pitfalls that come with strong disciplinary programs. For more information, please visit www.crucialtalks.com

Networking works because of goals and shared social categories. Goals that transcend groups and transcend conflict give people a way to work together. Shared social categories allow us to break down the walls that can separate people. One group that has used this to great effectiveness is Energy Safety Canda. Made up of six different associations and numerous members from different companies, they all can work together toward the goal of everyone going home safe. In this episode, examples from the movie Armageddon and We Were Soldiers let us see how goals and shared social categories can help us create cooperative environments. For more information, to connect with me, or to have me speak to your organization, please visit www.crucialtalks.com

Trauma is caused when a person perceives an event as life-threatening or life-altering. It can be something as bad as the Deepwater Horizon explosion where people are killed and seriously injured. Trauma can also be something that causes no physical harm. It is a psychological process. Because it is psychological, we may be able to impact trauma through a psychological process. In this episode, we discuss communication tools that could help people. Communicate the role of preparedness Communicate to promote togetherness Communicate to emphasize the positive If you would like more information, would like me to speak at your organization, or would just like to discuss this further, I am always open to contact. Please visit www.crucialtalks.com and reach out to me.

Many of us and many of our organizations are focused on problem-solving. We are trying to find the issues and fix them. This is normal, especially when we can more easily find the negatives. Although it is normal, occurs often, and is arguably a necessity in our organizations, problem-solving can lead to some significant issues. These problems with problem-solving include fragmentation, narrow views that prevent consideration of the entire system, and negative, self-fulfilling prophecies. These things can happen if we focus too much on problems. For more information, please visit www.crucialtalks.com.

Esteem is one of the prime motivators of why people join groups and how the membership to these groups impacts decision-making and behavior. The Sons of Anarchy lets us see how perception can impact the view people have of the groups they belong to and the groups they see others belonging to. This impacts esteem and drives what people will do. For more information, please visit www.crucialtalks.com and feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions, advice, or would like me to speak to your organization.

Groupthink happens in cohesive groups where the people involved seek consensus above all else. It is the negative outcome of good things. Good things like team cohesion and members liking each other can lead to groupthink. It's like bacon, too much of a good thing could be a bad thing.  You also don't want a group made up of different individuals each using separate identities to make decisions and guide behavior. A shared identity is important to group behavior. What we want to do is balance between the two. We want to stay in the middle. There are tools we can use to reduce the chance of groupthink.  These tools do two things: 1. Protects the group identity while 2. allows for positive conflict. To contact me about the podcast, speaking to your organization, or if you have any questions, please visit www.crucialtalks.com