Podcasts about teams new rules

In this episode of The Mentors Radio, host Dan Hesse talks with General Stanley McChrystal, U.S. Army General (Ret.), Commander of U.S. and International Forces in Afghanistan, Leader of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC), co-founder and CEO of McChrystal Group, and noted, best-selling author of several books. A one-of-a-kind leader with a new perspective on collaboration and teamwork, General Stan McChrystal is known for helping organizations tap into the potential of their people to better compete in a complex and interconnected world. Following thirty-four years of service in the U.S. Army—including as commander of U.S. and International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF) Afghanistan and commander of the nation's premier counter-terrorism force— General McChrystal delivers his unique blend of on-the- ground experience with decades of leadership to provide practical insight and wisdom to help organizations transform and succeed in challenging, dynamic environments. General McChrystal now leads the McChrystal Group as its founder and CEO, which helps organizations of all types transform how their people, processes, and technology work together to unlock greater speed and adaptability. As the author of several best-selling books, General McChrystal latest examines the character of leaders and what makes someone who they are and, importantly, how they will be remembered. SHOW NOTES: GENERAL STANLEY "STAN" McCHRYSTAL, General Ret., U.S. Army: BIO: https://leadershipheights.org/speaker-series/stanley-mcchrystal/ https://www.boldbusiness.com/human-achievement/stanley-mcchrystal-founder-mcchrystal-group-bold-leader/ BOOKS: NEWEST BOOK: On Character: Choices that Define a Life, by General Stanley McChrystal My Share of the Task: A Memoir, by General Stanley McChrystal Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, by General Stanley McChrystal Leaders: Myth and Reality, by General Stanley McChrystal Risk: A User's Guide, by General Stanley McChrystal WEBSITE: McChrystal Group

Send us a textIn this powerful conversation, retired four-star General Stanley McChrystal joins Joe to discuss his new book, On Character: Choices That Define a Life. Drawing from decades of military leadership and personal reflection, General McChrystal breaks down why character is more than just a word—it's a daily practice rooted in conviction and discipline.In this episode, they explore:Why journaling would have made him a better leaderA practical method he used to align his time with his priorities in AfghanistanHow reading shaped his thinking both in and out of uniformThe subtle but dangerous effects of power on rising leadersWhy leaders must continuously test their convictions under pressureWhether you're in uniform or leading in another capacity, this episode is a must-listen for anyone striving to lead with authenticity, courage, and character.Stan McChrystal retired in July 2010 as a four-star general after over 34 years of service in the U.S. Army. His final assignment was as the commander of NATO's International Security Assistance Force and all US forces in Afghanistan. He had previously served as the director of the Joint Staff and almost five years in command of the Joint Special Operations Command.General McChrystal's memoir, My Share of the Task, was a New York Times bestseller in 2013. He is also the author of New York Times bestseller Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World and wrote the forward for the sequel, One Mission:How Leaders Build a Team of Teams. He is a senior fellow at Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs and a partner at McChrystal Group, where he transforms organizations into adaptable teams. He and his wife, Annie, live in Virginia.A Special Thanks to Our Sponsors!Veteran-founded Adyton. Step into the next generation of equipment management with Log-E by Adyton. Whether you are doing monthly inventories or preparing for deployment, Log-E is your pocket property book, giving real-time visibility into equipment status and mission readiness. Learn more about how Log-E can revolutionize your property tracking process here!Meet ROGER Bank—a modern, digital bank built for military members, by military members. With early payday, no fees, high-yield accounts, and real support, it's banking that gets you. Funds are FDIC insured through Citizens Bank of Edmond, so you can bank with confidence and peace of mind. 

AI technology has the potential to enhance team dynamics and human relationships… if used thoughtfully. In this episode, Dan and Pia explore how AI can help with team communication and collaboration, while raising questions about finding the right balance between AI assistance and maintaining genuine human connection.For this episode, Dan and Pia are joined by ChatGPT, using OpenAI's advanced voice technology to participate in the conversation and provide answers to questions. ChatGPT is assisted by Squadify's Chief Technology Officer Ian Smith.Three reasons to listenExplore the challenges of hybrid teams and practical strategies for maintaining effective communication when team members work from different locationsDiscover approaches for transforming groups from "Teams in name only" into truly collaborative teams that achieve shared goalsSee where ChatGPT excels and falls down when answering questions (and how well it can maintain accents)Episode highlights[00:10:41] The challenges faced by hybrid teams[00:12:42] Teams in name only[00:15:11] Dealing with difficult team members[00:19:38] The ideal size of a team[00:21:07] Challenges faced by cross-functional teams[00:22:50] Qualities of high-performing leaders[00:24:18] ChatGPT's book recommendation[00:25:55] Takeaways from Pia and DanLinksThe Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High-Performance Organization, by Jon Katzenbach and Douglas SmithResearch by Richard HackmanThe Five Dysfunctions of a Team, by Patrick LencioniTeam of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, by Stanley McChrystalTrack and improve your team performance with SquadifyLeave us a voice note

Darren Chait discusses how to make meetings more engaging using data from Calendly's State of Meetings 2024 research. — YOU'LL LEARN — 1) Why 81% of respondents want more meetings 2) Three meetings to keep—and the one to stop 3) Surprising statistics on meeting etiquette Subscribe or visit AwesomeAtYourJob.com/ep1014 for clickable versions of the links below. — ABOUT DARREN — Darren Chait is the VP of Marketing at Calendly, leading the world-class marketing organization. Previously, he was a co-founder of Hugo, the leading meeting workflow solution powering meetings for tens of thousands of customers backed by Google, Slack and Atlassian.In a prior life, Darren was a corporate lawyer at one of Australia's leading law firms, where he attended meetings for a living – the start of his passion for meetings and the future of work.• LinkedIn: Darren Chait • Website: Calendly.com • Study: The State of Meetings 2024 — RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE SHOW — • Tool: Loom • Tool: Gong • Tool: Miro • Book: Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World by General Stanley McChrystal, Tantum Collins, David Silverman, Chris Fussell— THANK YOU SPONSORS! — • Lingoda. Visit try.lingoda.com/Awesome and save up to 20% off your sign up fee! Plus, get an extra $25 off with the code AWESOME • LinkedIn Jobs. Post your job for free at LinkedIn.com/beawesome• Jenni Kayne. Use the code AWESOME15 to get 15% off your order!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Urs Koenig reveals how to level up your leadership through the five shifts of radical humility. — YOU'LL LEARN — 1) Why leaders win more when they're humble 2) Two tricks to getting better quality feedback 3) How to make any tough conversation less intimidating Subscribe or visit AwesomeAtYourJob.com/ep975 for clickable versions of the links below. — ABOUT URS — Urs is a former United Nations military peacekeeper and NATO military peacekeeping commander, a highly accomplished ultraendurance champion, a widely published professor, bestselling author, and a seasoned executive coach and keynote speaker with more than three decades of experience helping hundreds of leaders and dozens of executive teams unlock new levels of achievement across four continents. He is the founder of the Radical Humility Leadership Institute and speaks frequently on the topic of leadership to corporations and associations across the globe. His message of Radical Humility in leadership has inspired teams from across the spectrum, including Amazon, Starbucks, the Society of Human Resource Management, Vistage, the University of Melbourne, and Microsoft. He holds a PhD in geography and a Master of Science from the University of Zürich, Switzerland, and an MBA from the Australian Graduate School of Management. Urs is the loving father of two teenage boys who make commanding soldiers look easy. He lives in Seattle, Washington. • Book: Radical Humility: Be a Badass Leader and a Good Human • LinkedIn: Urs Koenig • Website: UrsKoenig.com — RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THE SHOW — • Book: Endurance: Shackleton's Incredible Voyage (Anniversary Edition) by Alfred Lansing • Book: Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World by General Stanley McChrystal, Tantum Collins, David Silverman, Chris Fussell • Past episode: 707: Amy Edmondson on How to Build Thriving Teams with Psychological Safety — THANK YOU, SPONSORS! — • Harvard Business Review. Get 10% off your subscription at HBR.org/subscriptions with the promo code AWESOME• Hello Bello. Get 30% off your first customizable bundle with HelloBello.com/awesomeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Bio Brant Cooper is The New York Times bestselling author of The Lean Entrepreneur and his new popular book Disruption Proof. He is the CEO and founder of Moves the Needle. He is a trusted adviser to startups and large enterprises around the world. With more than 25 years of expertise in changing industrial age mindset into digital age opportunity, he blends agile, human-centered design, and lean methodologies to ignite entrepreneurial action from the front lines to the C-suite.  As a sought-after keynote speaker, startup mentor, and executive advisor, he travels the globe sharing his vision for reimagining 21st century organizations. Bringing agility, digital transformation, and a focus on creating value for customers, he helps leaders navigate the uncertainty brought on by increased complexity and endless disruption.   Interview Highlights 01:30 Background 03:40 First startup 05:30 Learning from failure 06:50 The Lean Entrepreneur 07:30 Empowering employees 15:40 Learning through observation 19:00 Disruptions 22:00 Output vs Outcome 30:45 Working in teams 35:30 Aligning priorities 41:00 Disruption Proof 52:00 Take risks   Social Media ·         LinkedIn:  Brant Cooper ·         X/Twitter: @brantcooper ·         Email: brant@brantcooper.com ·         Website: www.brantcooper.com ·         Website: www.movestheneedle.com ·         YouTube: Brant Cooper   Books & Resources ·         Disruption Proof: Empower People, Create Value, Drive Change, Brant Cooper ·         The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development: A cheat sheet to The Four Steps to the Epiphany, Brant Cooper  ·          The Lean Entrepreneur: How Visionaries Create Products, Innovate with New Ventures, and Disrupt Markets, Brant Cooper, Patrick Vlaskovits, Eric Ries ·         The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development: A cheat sheet to The Four Steps to the Epiphany: Brant Cooper, Patrick Vlaskovits ·         Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts, Brené Brown, Brené Brown ·         Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, General Stanley McChrystal   Episode Transcript Intro: Hello and welcome to the Agile Innovation Leaders podcast. I'm Ula Ojiaku. On this podcast I speak with world-class leaders and doers about themselves and a variety of topics spanning Agile, Lean Innovation, Business, Leadership and much more – with actionable takeaways for you the listener. Ula Ojiaku So I have with me Brant Cooper, who is the author of the books Lean Entrepreneur and his latest one, Disruption Proof: Empower People, Create Value, Drive Change. He also is the CEO and Founder of Moves the Needle. Brant, it is a pleasure and an honour to have you as my guest on the Agile Innovation Leaders Podcast. Brant Cooper Thank you so much for having me. I'm glad to be here. Ula Ojiaku Now Brant, as I start with all my guests, we want to know a bit more about you. So could you tell us about yourself growing up, your background, are there any experiences that have made a great impact on you that have led to you becoming the Brant we see today? Brant Cooper Yeah, so born and mostly raised in California, which seems to be somewhat unique these days, but also did travel around a bit. My dad was a Navy man. I don't know, I guess I was always a little bit different. I think a lot of us describe ourselves that way, but when I went away to school for college, most people were focusing on one major or maybe two majors because that was sort of the state of the world. It's kind of, this is a little while ago, but supposedly what you needed to do is go and get narrow expertise and then that was what was going to launch your career. But to me, that was boring. And so I wanted to take a little bit of everything. So chemistry and calculus and sociology and psychology and history and creative writing and literature. So I was sort of all over the map and I guess it's kind of funny, you can look back on your life and find these little threads that weave through everything. When I left college and got my first job, I remember specifically, I was in Washington, D. C. and I was sitting on the stoop of the house that I was living in and I was all like, really, is this it? Is this the rest of my life, is it working 9 to 5 doing, you know, what people are telling me to do. Wow. That doesn't seem like the bargain I thought it was. So I actually dropped out and wrote a novel, which was very sophomoric, because unless you're a genius, most 20-something year olds really don't know that much about the world. But anyway, it was sort of a, this empowering moment when I just sort of had faith in myself that I would always be able to take care of myself and figure things out. And so it's really one of these moments where the moment you feel like you can just leave a job, you get a tremendous amount of power from that. Most people go through their lives feeling like they have to do what their boss says and they have to live that life and it becomes, your choices obviously become quite limited. So I ended up crossing the country back to California, moved up to the Bay Area, worked in a few jobs there, tried unsuccessfully to sell my book, and then I joined my first startup. So this is the, you know, dot com era, the nineties, and it was really there at this startup that I caught wind of the fact that there were actually these jobs where you weren't supposed to just do what you're told, that your responsibility was to figure things out, to exercise your own creativity and your own intelligence, and nobody was going to sit there over your shoulder, that you were going to be held accountable to what you were doing or what you weren't doing. But you are literally sort of on your own and that was, again, sort of the second moment of feeling the sense of empowerment. And it's funny, because up to that point, I really, maybe I wasn't an A player as the startup likes to talk about the startup myths, you know, you have to go hire all those A players. Maybe I just wasn't an A player, but I used to be passed around like a hot potato between all of these managers because nobody really wanted to manage me because I really didn't do what they said. I did what I thought was best. But anyway, so the startup sort of launched this new type of, so then even in the startups, I worked at a bunch of different jobs. So instead of again, specialising, I was in IT, and then I ran the professional services group and then I went into product management and then I took over marketing, you know, sort of helping out salespeople. So I, again, I sort of traverse the whole, all of the different functions inside the company. And I guess I think that that was also a big learning moment for me, and so I lived through that, you know, tried a couple of my own companies that failed and others that succeeded crazily and others that, you know, ramped up their sales, but then they tailed off and I was on the management team trying to figure things out. And it's funny, because I used to, you always learn more from failures, and I think that the last one, the way I talk about it is that the sort of the company strategy was dictated every week by whoever was the best arguer. Like, so it was just like a management team free for all. And whoever won, that would set the strategy. And so I sort of won for, you know, a year and a year and a half, and we grew like crazy and I had, you know, allies on the team and then they kind of changed their mind and got rid of me and got rid of my allies. And then they went back and did whatever they wanted to do, the founders. So it was all again, it's sort of this learning moment where maybe that's not the best way to make decisions, but so the dot com bust happened and I was actually writing and blogging about, well, what makes successful startups better, what makes them successful compared to all of the ones that fail and what is it about, you know, sort of this idea of learning and empowering people to learn rather than just execute. And so I was blogging about that stuff and got turned on to Steve Blank and to Eric Ries and I ended up writing the first book that talked about lean startup and product market fit. And then that kind of launched this whole other career where at first we're focused on startups, but eventually, I wrote The Lean Entrepreneur and formed Moves the Needle to start taking some of these principles to large enterprises over the world. So around the last 10 years we've been helping some of the biggest brands in the world try to adopt some of these principles of exploration, so learning mode and, yeah, that sort of takes us to where we are today. I am still doing that work in addition to some other things, but primarily it's focused on empowering employees to exercise their creativity and their inspiration and to drive impact. And then, you know, helping the leadership understand that they get more out of their people if they enable that, and take a step back, and then they get to be more proactive and more strategic in their own world, and it's sort of empowering to them as well. And I think really, post pandemic, we've sort of seen this shift where that's happening more once people are remote workers, you know, workers being burned out and frustrated with work is when they don't get to do that sort of work. So yeah, it's sort of an interesting time and really the rise of, you know, sort of Agile reaching the next level and Design Thinking reaching the next level and Product Management and all of these things happening because the world is turning digital, makes this a pretty exciting time to apply a lot of these principles. Ula Ojiaku You have a fascinating background, Brant, and there are some things that you said about your background that had me nodding, because I identify with it and maybe in terms of, I love variety. And yes, I studied Engineering, but I also kind of liked to know a bit more about economics, psychology, you know, the other subjects outside my normal domain and someone I was having a conversation with someone I can't remember his name again, I think it was Dr. Steve Morlidge at a conference and he was saying life is all integral really, it's just us as human beings trying to make sense of the different aspects. We've created the disciplines, but in the truest sense, there aren't any distinctive lines, and it's all integral, and it helps, I've noticed, you know, at least for me personally, just knowing a bit about other subjects outside my core area just helps me to be more well-rounded and more strategic, if I, for lack of a better word, in how I approach issues. Brant Cooper I agree with that. It provides a larger context, right? I mean, so if you can understand what the colleagues are doing in the other function, you can also see the bigger picture, which makes a lot of sense. Ula Ojiaku Yeah, yeah. And you mentioned something about not liking to be told what to do. Is that the definition of an entrepreneur or could there be something else? Brant Cooper Well, I mean, I think it is, yes, I think it probably is similar to most early stage entrepreneurs, but, you know, you won't succeed as an entrepreneur if that's the only way you are. And so, you know, we all kind of grew up a little bit and we, you know, we have to mature in a way that we can still hold on to our creativity and all of these, our instinct or whatever it is, but we also have to be able to listen to others and to recognise when ideas are better than ours and change our minds based upon new indications. And so there's a flexibility that has to be built into there as well. It can't just be that you're going to stick to your guns. And as a matter of fact, I get a lot of entrepreneurs saying like, oh, well, it's all about the conviction of your idea. And I go, sure, if you want to fail, that's great. But you know, if you really want to change the world, as opposed to focus on a particular idea, then you have to be flexible. And I think that it's a, you know, people always point to Steve Jobs and his genius and I'm all like, yep, it took him a long time to get out, you know, the product that really was putting a computer in everybody's pocket, which is kind of what his dream was in the beginning. It took him a long time to get to the iPhone, and that what was revolutionary about the iPhone actually was opening up the app store to third party developers because that turned the phone into a platform and yet he opposed it even with all of his advisors telling him he had to do that, he didn't allow it the first year and so it wasn't until the second year when he changed his mind that things really took off and so I think it ends up being Steve Jobs is a great example, but not for the reason you think. Ula Ojiaku We could go into that but I think we would be going off tangent a bit. So what makes a lean entrepreneur? Because one of your books is titled, The Lean Entrepreneur, how visionaries create products, innovate new ventures and disrupt markets. Brant Cooper So I think fundamentally, it's somebody that can admit when they're wrong or when they don't know. I mean, so the lean part of lean entrepreneur is about reducing waste. It's not about being small or not spending money. It's about not wasting money and not wasting time and resources and even your own passion and your own inspiration. And so how can we work to understand our customers more deeply? How can we work to understand the market better? How can we run experiments that bust through our assumptions? How do we even identify assumptions? And then how do we cut through our own biases and all of these things that are very human but could be holding back the success of what we want to build or what we want to bring to the world. And so to me, that's the lean entrepreneur, is you have to be able to admit when you're wrong, admit when you don't know, and go out there and learn and hustle and explore and figure things out before you spend the time and money and resources executing on a particular idea. Ula Ojiaku So what I've heard you says is being willing to change your mind when you are faced with, you know, some evidence that your original assumptions are wrong, and also being mindful about how you use your resources. You're not wasteful, you're using it to learn and discover and learn what your customers want so that you're better able to provide that to them. Brant Cooper That's correct. Yep. And so if you're, you know, if you sit down and you build a product for six months, and then the product's wrong, or even, you know, just a lot wrong, you know, then there's a lot of waste that went into that. And when you're understanding customers, that doesn't mean ask your customers what they want and do what they say. It means understanding why are they saying what they're saying and what is their environment and what are their aspirations and what are their real needs. It's up to you as the, you know, sort of as the product person or the solution provider, to come up with what is the best way for me to address those needs, but the only way you can really truly understand those needs is to dive as deeply as possible in understanding the customer and their environment. Ula Ojiaku Are there any, like, specific examples of how as a lean entrepreneur, I can dive more into knowing what the customer does or needs? Brant Cooper Sure, I mean, I think that, you know, Steve Blank's customer development stuff was always really about understanding customers more. I think it was like, in my opinion, a little bit shallow compared to some of the techniques that are used in human centred design or design thinking, where you're getting down to emotional levels and you're getting down to, you know, empathy and really understanding, and you're kind of zooming in and zooming out. You can zoom in and interview, that's fine, but you can also zoom out in trying to figure out, well, what does it, what would this mean to them if they were successfully doing what they wanted to do? Would they be able to take their family to Italy in the summertime? Is that what they aspire to? Do they want to be a better mother? Do they, like, what is actually driving individuals to make the decisions that they're making? You know, observation is a great way to learn about that. That's, you know, often used in human centred design when you're even in, you know, business to business, business type of solutions, is you go watch people do the work that they're doing in their environment and you can start picking up on all sorts of issues that they're constantly having to overcome or, you know, conflicts or, you know, things don't work in a particular environment or IT does not allow this, you know, I mean, there's all sorts of things that can educate you about what you're trying to, the needs that you're trying to address. Ula Ojiaku Yeah, I completely agree. And for you, would you say that, you know, being a lean entrepreneur, is it just for individuals who set up their own startups or early growth companies? Can it also apply within a large established organisation with, say, thousands of employees already? Brant Cooper Yeah, no, I think that it's a good question. I think that the example that I give is if you look back to Henry Ford's Model T, right? You build a factory and then you build a whole company around this highly optimised, efficient assembly line that can produce the same vehicle, you know, he sort of famously say, you can have a Model T in any colour you want, as long as it's black, right? That's the only thing that he's going to produce. And so he optimises the flow of resources through the manufacturing, and then he builds the rest of the company based upon functions, this whole linear fashion, everybody do what we've already proven needs to be done. Then you can produce a car that the middle class could buy, which was a new thing and opened up this crazy new market. So that's very well understood. Everything is really, there's not a lot of uncertainty, but if you look, fast forward to the digital age, there's tons of uncertainty, right? All of the products and services that are produced have multiple models and multiple options on each model and hundreds of colours. And there's a lot of choices for consumers to choose one over the other. So consumers don't have the same brand loyalty that they used to. They can change their minds overnight. And again, this is true in the business world, not just consumers. But so there's so much uncertainty there, that you actually have to then understand the niche desires of all of these different market segments out there. Well, the only way to do that, so if you imagine that organisation that is only allowed to do what you're told to do based upon how it used to work, then you're the one that's going to miss out on all those opportunities based upon creating exactly the model or the options that the customer wants. How do you know what it is that those customers want. Well, you have to be out and interact with them. So even the biggest companies in the world have to figure out how they're going to start learning from the environment that they're in. So that's number one. Big companies have to do it and they are doing it more and more. Design and product management and all of these things are, these practices are emerging in these companies to do that exactly. And I think that the other point is, is that the world is so interconnected now, and this, again, has been brought upon by the digital revolution, and so what that causes is that all of these disruptions that we've just, you know, experienced here in the last four or five years, things like the pandemic, inflation, supply chain shocks, reverberations from the war, you know, just on and on. All of these things sort of ripple across our economies. They used to be, they could be isolated in different pockets of the world without affecting the rest of the world. Now everything affects everything. It's like the, you know, the butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon or something like this. You know, it creates this chaos. And so what that means is, is that things, disruptions, not as bad as the pandemic, but disruptions like ransomware attacks that cause disruptions, or again, supply chain issues, all of these things ripple across the economy and they actually change the market. So if you worked on your marketing plan and your selling plan the day after the pandemic hit, you're not in execution, you're just flailing. You have to actually be able to readdress, what is our situation currently based upon the current environment? How do we change our work in order to adapt to this new environment? And that is just a skill that everybody needs and everybody has to develop. And those are, startups do it naturally, big companies need to try to figure out how they're going to build that in and this is sort of the, the rise of Agile, right? I mean, so I think that the way I describe Agile, or the way I picture it for people without getting into all of the jargon is like a meerkat. So, a tribe of meerkats, every once in a while, come out of their hole and they pick their heads up and they look around and they take in new information and they're going to decide what to do based upon that new information. So, if you're a big corporation, you need to pause your work, which would be like a Agile sprint. You look up from the work. What has changed? Are we making the right progress? Right? Check within our customers. We check with our stakeholders. How do we improve our work as a team so that our output is better? So you take that moment to pause regularly, you can make your Sprint lengths anything that you want, I really don't care, it depends on the type of business that you're in, but you're pausing the work, you're re-evaluating, you're taking in new information, and maybe the answer is you don't have to change your work at all, you can just go back, but there's likely, sometimes, changes that have to be made so that you're getting to the desired outcome more efficiently, so we can't be like the assembly line, you know, Ford's assembly line, where output was a proxy for outcome, i.e we're going to be successful if we can produce the car at this cost. Now, it's like, we have to focus on efficiency of outcome and not efficiency of output and that means that it's actually more efficient to pause and make changes during the course rather than only after failing at the very end. Ula Ojiaku There's a question, you know, lots of things you've said that I resonate with, and one of my favourite questions to previous guests and you would be the next one I'm asking this, is what would you define as outputs versus outcome? So, what's an output to you versus what's an outcome? Brant Cooper Yeah, so like the Henry Ford example is the easiest. Output is the car is being done, is being produced. So the car has been manufactured. That's output, and for decades, even still today, businesses and economists using old antiquated models like Larry Summers does, are focused on the efficiency of output and what those are serving to do is being proxies for outcome. So if you, outcome would be, we've successfully sold those cars to happy customers, so they're going to buy again from us, and maybe they're going to get service from us, and maybe they're going to get financing from us, right? So, we want to keep them satisfied, and also we get to generate income and we pay our workers and we actually pay our shareholders. So, everybody gets sort of these outcomes or these desired results from successfully selling the car, which is dependent upon the sufficient production of output. But now, again, today, if you buy all of what else I've said, you can't, output is not a proxy of outcome. So output is, still could be the number of cars that are produced, but if they're not sold and the customers aren't happy, then you're not going to be able to pay your shareholders and you're not going to keep loyal customers, and you're not going to pay your workers, and so we have to now look at the efficiency of outcomes because the world is so complex. So that applies to, I think, any product. Obviously, when you go into the nuances of a corporate hierarchy, not everybody is focused on the final outcome, and so they actually have to have their own outcomes. But even in that regard, you know, outcome is increased user satisfaction. Output is, you've built X by a certain date. Outcome is, you know, a thousand people have opened your newsletter, you know, 75 percent of people opened your newsletter, output is we sent the out the newsletter to 10,000 people. So, the output is very focused on ourselves and the tasks that we're doing, usually over time period. outcome is, what are we getting out of those tasks? And it's best to measure that actually from who the beneficiary's experience. So if I'm producing a, you know, just a super simple example, if I'm producing this newsletter and people are opening it and spending time reading it, then that is a desired outcome. If nobody opens it, then that's sort of a, you know, there's a variety of issues that might be involved there, but you haven't achieved the outcome despite your output. Ula Ojiaku Thanks for that explanation. And somebody else said something that stuck with me as well, which is that, you know, outcome would signify some sort of change in behaviour, or in noticeable behaviour from the perspective of whoever the customer is, or who's consuming the results of your work. Brant Cooper Totally agree with that, and way more succinct than what I said. And the focus really is, it's on, that's what I sort of refer to as the beneficiary, because sort of inside of an organisation, your beneficiary of the work that you're doing are maybe internal people, not directly to the customer. So customer, sort of in scare quotes. But I love the fact that they, that person mentioned behaviour, because that's what actually allows us to measure it. And so even in The Lean Entrepreneur book, there's a section called the value stream discovery, which is focused on, what is the behaviour that I'm trying to get from my customer for everything that I'm doing as a business, and how do I measure that that behaviour is happening? And one of the benefits, of course, of the digital world is that you can measure a lot of that stuff. And so if you're trying to measure whether people are satisfied with your product, one proxy for that might be not just running surveys, but how often are they using the product? What are they actually doing with the product? It's not that they downloaded the app, it's that they downloaded the app, they installed it, they create an account, and they come in and they look at, you know, these different screens and interact with them four times every week. Okay, that's what a satisfied customer looks like. How many do we have? What's the growth of satisfied customers year over year or month over month? So it gives us all of this way of starting to measure what the behaviour side is, that becomes very powerful whenever we're doing our work. Ula Ojiaku And it's all about evidence based, it helps with evidence-based decisions, so that helps you because back to your explanation or, well, I say your talk about Agile and how it should help with, you know, organisations and leaders with just periodically you do a bit of work in a Sprint, but you look up and look around and know, okay, what we're doing, is it really moving us? Is it moving the needle? No pun intended. Is it moving the needle or is it pushing us closer to where we want? Are we likely to achieve those outcomes instead of focusing on how many widgets or gadgets we've produced within a Sprint? So based on that, what are the things, can you give examples of, you know, challenges you've observed, maybe in organisations or startups with being able to apply this sort of iterative development mindset, and still managing it with the needs to plan in, you know, longer time, across longer time horizons, because some organisations, especially if you're, for example, publicly traded, you still have to have a long term, you know, mid-term and short term view. So how can you, what are the challenges you've experienced with them, balancing all these? Brant Cooper I think that, yeah, I think it's, you're planning outcomes and so I think that the difficulty is that when people look at the outcomes, like, well, we need to grow 5%, you know, quarter over quarter, or something like that, the difficulty ends up being when they have to translate those outcomes into what is the work that people need to do. And so we, at some point in that progression from the top leadership down to the to the ground floor, those outcomes get translated into output. And so we lose this connection between, is what we're working on actually going to achieve the desired outcomes? And this is what causes all the reorganisations that happen every couple of years, because they don't, they don't match up, and then the Board or the C-Suite needs to do a reorganisation because it's sort of their admission, their tacit admission that they failed in organising the output to match the outcome. And so they get to have a reset. And so they fire a bunch of people and they reorganise and then they go do it again. So, I think the biggest challenge is that it's really a ground up type of change that has to happen. And so a lot of the, I'm sure you're very familiar with a lot of the, you know, the corporate implementations of Agile tend to be very process-heavy and very, you must do it this way, and you've lost all of the Agile principles and the ethos that got you to want to do it in the first place. And instead it has to be very ground up and it's really around, in my opinion, putting people on teams, so I don't think there's any individual inside of a company that should not be on a team. The team sort of will hold people socially accountable to their work. And if not, then there's still HR that can deal with it, but rather than have managers kind of leaning over and trying to get everybody to figure it out, you know, sort of the, the classic Agile self-organised team, where those teams have to be held accountable to the outcomes, but are empowered to figure out the work in order to achieve those outcomes. And then you practice that behaviour. That behaviour has to be practiced. It's not about, like, giving an order that now you have to work self organised, you actually have to practice that behaviour and you build in some of these other empathy techniques as well as running experimentation and you create an environment where, like, as a leader, you admit when you don't know, and when you've made a mistake, so you're kind of demonstrating vulnerability and that we're actually living in this complex, uncertain world so that you are empowering individuals to also behave the same way. And so you're starting to create this learning exploration balanced with execution type of organisation, and I think inevitably you start seeing impact of that type of work, and that's really, I think, how you can start driving the longer term change that has to happen. It's really by taking pockets of the organisation, teaching the behaviour and practicing it. And then it's teaching and practicing leaders how to manage people that are working that way, which is different as well. I sort of view it as perhaps a little bit idealistically or even utopian is, it's sort of cascading missions. And so the very top mission statements are around those things that you're promising Wall Street. Here's what our growth is going to be, here's what we're going to achieve next quarter and two quarters from that. And then in order to achieve that, here's the different things that our business unit must achieve, the outcomes. And that drips all the way down in terms of outcomes, to the point that you're assigning teams, here is your outcome and you know how to do the work or we'll help you figure out to do the work or you could figure it out yourself. I mean, depends on kind of the quality and the nature of those teams, but it's a way of organising work where I think, in the end, the company doesn't necessarily look that differently than it does now, but it's just not built sort of arbitrarily on function like it is now. And so, by building sort of this mission-oriented way, whenever there's uncertainty, you can put people on that mission that can help overcome the uncertainty. And so you get sort of the cross functional and interdisciplinary nature, when it's required. If it's not required, that's fine. You know, all manufacturers, they're working on that team. That's great. They know what their outcome is and they're going to produce that outcome. But if it's uncertainty, how are we going to go into this new market? Okay, well, there's a lot of things that we know, but we should test those things that we don't know. It's a different, it's a different makeup of that team. Whereas now, if you're trying to do exploration work, when the teams are organised by function, you have to sort of force that cross functionality, and it's very difficult and it doesn't last long. If you don't keep the pressure on, everything kind of falls back into whatever their functional role is, as opposed to continuing to adopt and apply missions to these teams, then they get the resources that they need in order to accomplish a particular mission and then that should rise up to the level of whatever the company objectives are. Ula Ojiaku It's really interesting, and it seems like you're a mind reader because you did say initially, you know, it has to start from the ground up. And I was going to ask you if there was any place at all for, you know, the bigger North Star vision mission to trickle down and influence what they, the people on the shop floor are doing in the coalface, as some people would use the term. And you've kind of answered it. So it's more of trickling down the mission such that it gets, once it gets down to the teams actually doing the work, they understand what they're doing and how it's helping in their own way, how they're helping to achieve the bigger objective of the organisation. Brant Cooper Yeah, exactly. And I think that that's what, again, going back to sort of the big quit and workers being burned out, I think that a lot of them, like whatever survey I've seen, even those produced by the big consultant firms, pretty much say that workers don't feel aligned. They don't feel aligned with what the priorities are, like they don't even know what they are, and they don't feel like they're driving an impact, and then that makes human beings feel like they're not making an impact in their own life, and it starts this downward spiral, whereas we can create a fortuitous spiral if we actually allow these people to see the impact that they are making. Ula Ojiaku And the benefit of working in an Agile manner. Now, I do have my reservations about some people who have peddled Agile as you know, like an elixir, you have a headache, Agile will cure it, or you have a tummy ache, Agile will cure it. Actually, it has its purpose, it has its remit and it has, just like you'd have multiple tools in a toolbox, Agile is really about, you know, you sense, you respond, you know, you build, you put it out there, you get feedback, quick feedback, and then you make adjustments as required, and then move, you know, take the next step. So, from that perspective, taking an Agile approach to, will I say developing or building on, or implementing strategy. How can, do you have any thoughts on how organisations can be more effective at it? I know you've talked about the ideal of cascading missions and then building up. But what else do you think organisations or leaders and organisations can take into account? Brant Cooper Yeah, I think that the, I agree with you, it's not, it's just, you know, one view into it. And so I think that there's, I'm sure there's other ways of tackling it. I think that, I guess I think that it's this idea of teams, like, I think that there's everybody could start forming a team now, and it doesn't have to be permanent. Like, if there's a bunch of things that need to be done, find one part of uncertainty and form a team and give them the responsibility of solving that uncertainty. And so I think that it's, it ends up then being well, they don't need to necessarily learn Agile or Design Thinking. I really think that if we measured the right things, human beings sort of know how to optimise what they're being measured for. And so I think that if you were to sit down with a group of your people, and you were to say, listen, this is some, here's a business challenge that we have, I would really like you four or five people to go figure it out, I'm here to give you whatever help you need along the way, I'm here to mentor you, give you my own advice, do whatever. But I need you all to try to figure this out. And here's what the outcome is that we want to get from that, what do you think? And, you know, maybe there's a little bit back and forth, but I think that that's actually more important than any of the frameworks that, you know, even I talk about a lot, and so I think Agile was originally developed sort of around that concept, just very specifically for software development teams. And so I think that it's thinking about the principles that can apply pretty much anywhere as opposed to the actual practices. I just also happen to think that there's a bunch of practices that can be beneficial. Things like the idea of what is the length of time you're going to put your head down versus, you know, when you look up or how you're going to share your work or all of those type of things. But I think that it's essentially if we just gave a group of people a business, a challenge, and said, I'd really like you to help me figure this out, that you would see them rally around that idea. And I think that that's kind of the nugget of what we're trying to create here, and then hopefully spread because it makes those people happier, and when they solve something, that's impact that can be shared with other people. And I think that you see in companies that really have been successfully innovative are those that actually have inspired that to the point that the core business is then, you know, want some of that energy, like, we want that here, because we know that we have to be faster and move quicker and adapt and all of those type of things. We know we have to be truly customer centric and not just, you know, sitting around a conference room table, imagining we're the customer, so it's really kind of really more about finding that and it also may vary, you know, based upon company culture, even positive company cultures. And it's like, what is that little nugget that actually empowers people to, as a team, let's work together and figure something out. Ula Ojiaku Thanks for that very, very insightful response, and there's something you said about uncertainty. You know, it's really about trying to make sense of the unknown, and this brings me to your book, your latest book, Disruption Proof, full title Disruption Proof: Empower People, Create Value, Drive Change. What led you to writing that book and what is it all about? Brant Cooper Yeah, so I think it really is, it's really all about what we've just been talking about the last few minutes, where it really is sort of looking at how the organisation can structure people and work, such that the natural output of it is  more, it's actually the way I put it is more efficient execution based upon exploration work, and so how do you build that into the organisation, so it doesn't feel like it's a cannibalisation, you know, sort of the whole old school Clayton Christensen stuff. I know everybody's going to be like, what do you mean old school, but it's like, it's not about disrupting yourself, it's not about this other organisation is going to come in and disrupt you. It's not that you actually have to eat your own tail as a snake. It's about finding this emerging behaviour that then will sort of flower from within and takes over the organisation because that's what the circumstances require. And so I think that the, I don't know, I guess I think that the book was trying to show examples of businesses that have done that, either large scale, or pockets within these organisations that have brought people together, cross-functional where necessary, interdisciplinary. Hey, this is a new opportunity, how do we actually engage the business units as opposed to, to me what that old school way of doing it is like, here's your little innovations, you know, silo over here, you guys go figure out what's going to happen in 10 years. I think that's like, largely failed. And I think that what we need to do, is figure out how there's, from the beginning there's buy-in from these other parts of the organisation. So that's really what the last book is about, really all of these things that we've been talking about. Ula Ojiaku And I believe it's available on Amazon and other major book sellers. Brant Cooper Anywhere you can buy a book. Ula Ojiaku Awesome. Well, I haven't read it yet, but I have made a note, it's on my reading list, definitely. Brant Cooper Well, thank you for that. Ula Ojiaku Definitely. No, my pleasure, I look forward to digging into it to learn a bit more about the concepts you've just shared and the insights as well as the examples with organisations that might have failed or succeeded in some aspects of the concepts. Brant Cooper Yeah, that kind of describes everybody to a certain level. Ula Ojiaku Do you have anyone you could share at this point? You know, maybe an example from your book? You don't have to name names. Is there anyone that comes to mind? Brant Cooper Well, I think in terms of, I guess what I would call lean innovation transformation, I think ING is a really good example, the bank in Europe, they did a full on Agile transformation as well, like organising the whole company based upon really more like based upon missions than functions, and I think that that always has its challenges, but I think that what, in the end, they kind of brought these two different endeavours together. One being this Agile transformation and this other being what we call lean innovation. And so they really started practicing the empathy and the exploration work and the experiments. And those things ended up sort of combining. And I think it's always interesting when, you can theorise about this stuff, but when do you actually get to see the results? And so a lot of this, most of this work was all done pre-pandemic. And then some of the stories that came out of different pockets of the organisation during the pandemic were really quite extraordinary in ways that they were able to adapt to, you know, finding yourself suddenly in this world, that they could point back to these lean innovation practices, being the, you know, being the impetus for being able to change like that. So I love those stories where you're actually able to see that, okay, we applied all of this. Here's like this major, you know, environmental change brought on by the pandemic, how did the company respond. And so that's a, I wrote a couple of stories about that stuff in the book Disruption Proof. And so there's a couple of other examples in there, but that's the one that really comes to mind because they just committed to it at a larger level than I've seen other organisations do. Ula Ojiaku Sounds awesome. So in addition to your books, The Lean Entrepreneur, The Entrepreneur's Guide to Customer Development, Disruption Proof, what other books have you found yourself recommending to people who want to know more about, you know, Lean Innovation, Agile, or maybe it doesn't have to be on the subject of Lean Innovation or Agile, but just generally because you felt they were impactful to your life. What other books have you recommended to people and why? Brant Cooper Yeah. So I think that, you know, people have recognised change in the world quite a bit over the last, you know, 10 years or so, or five or six years, pandemic is making me lose all track of time. But, so the ones that I keep coming back to are not specifically Agile or lean innovation. So I would say Brené Brown's Dare to Lead, and I think that this is a just an example of what we mean by empathy, you know, you don't really have to go hug your customers, you don't have to hug your employees. It's not, you know, but it's understanding how you apply those principles in a business environment and the ability, like I mentioned earlier, for leaders to demonstrate vulnerability by admitting when they don't know and when they're wrong, that this is really important in changing. The other thing I'll throw out there that I love that Brené Brown talks about is this idea of rumbling. Again, we're not talking about some, you know, kind of kumbaya moment here. It's really around bringing evidence to the table and having forceful discussions about what is actually happening and what you need to do next, but it's based upon this evidence and I kind of call it respectful rumbling, because rather than like my startup example I gave in the beginning of just arguing, it's really around, you know, as a team of leaders even, it's great to respect each other, but we also have to be direct and honest and have real conversations and not just sort of let everything go hunky dory and then go back to your office and whine about stuff. So it's, I think that there's this, I don't know, I sort of enjoy this ability to sit around with people and, you know, kind of debate ideas and really try to get to the crux of things. And I think that we need that, and Brené Brown writes about that in Dare to Lead. I think that the other one, it's General McChrystal Team of Teams. And I think that, I'm not sure he ever realised it, but I think he was writing about Agile. But what he describes, of course, is the US military in Iraq, and the difference between facing a traditional force versus a, you know, sort of this ad hoc network, new, modern military force and Al Qaeda, and the changes that he then needed to do to the military to be able to respond to that. And I think that it's really quite extraordinary in the sense that, you know, unfortunately, in my opinion, the military is often the first thing for an organisation to learn about all of these things happening in the world. But it is a result of the digital revolution that now what you have are this interconnectedness that never existed before that allow little ad hoc network entities to pop up everywhere. And this is the same thing that's happening in business, and it's the same thing that happens in the market and Agile actually is a response to that, and so then we have to go back to how do we implement Agile so that that's actually part of the organisation. It's this interconnectedness and this ad hoc nature of forming teams and missions to accomplish goals, whether they're long term or short term. And so it's really super, an interesting analogy to, I think, what business requires. Ula Ojiaku So you've mentioned two books, Dare to Lead by Brené Brown and Team of Teams by General McChrystal. Okay, well, thank you. Brant Cooper They almost seem like polar opposites, but it's sort of interesting. Ula Ojiaku Well, they are interesting. I haven't read Brené Brown's Dare to Lead, but I have listened to the audio version of Team of Teams, and I do agree there are some interesting insights, which one can, basically, something that you said about principles, again, that principles, you know, you can draw from General McChrystal's narration of their experience in Iraq and how they had to adapt and all that, which you can apply to the commercial world or, yeah, so I completely agree was a very interesting book for me. So can the audience engage with you, and if so, how? Brant Cooper Yeah, so I'm Brant Cooper on all social media, really, but, you know, maybe primarily LinkedIn and I encourage people to reach out. I'm brant@brantcooper.com is my email and I respond to, you know, I respond to everybody. My company's website is movestheneedle.com and we're launching some online courses that hopefully make learning some of these new behaviours a little bit more scalable. So I invite people to check that out, but yeah, you know, happy to engage with any of your listeners. Ula Ojiaku Sounds great. Well, thank you for sharing those, and this would also be in the show notes. And would you have any final words for the audience, any ask? Brant Cooper I don't really have, I don't think any ask. I think that, I don't know, I guess one other little story that that summarises part of my life was this idea that I forget every once in a while that change happens because you as an individual decides to make a change. And I think that, like, some people, I think that just comes naturally to it and they live their whole life that way. I'm not that way, I'll sit back for a while and kind of look around and go like, well, who's going to fix this? And then I realise, oh, well, you have to do it. And so I encourage other people to maybe actually look at themselves in that way, and sort of that own self awareness goes like, oh, well, guess it's me. And, you know, I think that it's easy to be scared of the risks supposedly, but I also think that generally the risk is in doing nothing. And so you might as well go for it. Ula Ojiaku  Go for it, take risks. Thank you for those words. Brant Cooper Based upon evidence. Ula Ojiaku Okay, go for it, take evidence-based, calculated risks. How does that sound? Kind of made it very clinical. I think I've rephrased it in a way that takes off the oomph, but thank you so much, Brant. It's been a pleasure meeting you and recording this episode with you. So thank you again for your time. Brant Cooper Thanks for having me. Fun, fun discussion. Thank you. Ula Ojiaku That's all we have for now. Thanks for listening. If you liked this show, do subscribe at www.agileinnovationleaders.com or your favourite podcast provider. Also share with friends and do leave a review on iTunes. This would help others find this show. I'd also love to hear from you, so please drop me an email at ula@agileinnovationleaders.com Take care and God bless!   

Kitchens – like any professional environment – need effective leadership. This means staying calm, promoting clear communication, and creating a learning environment where team members feel valued and motivated. Professional kitchens run well are the epitome of the We Not Me philosophy.This week, Dan and Pia are joined by Simon Zatyrka, a former executive chef who's spent most of his career in professional kitchens around the US. He's the founder of the Culinary Mechanic, where he coaches chefs on leadership and building a positive culture in the kitchen, offering a mix of on-site and virtual consulting.Three reasons to listenTo understand the importance of team building and development in high-pressure environmentsTo learn about the dynamics and leadership strategies used in professional kitchensTo discover how to create a productive and positive culture within a teamEpisode highlights[00:13:55] Inside a professional kitchen[00:23:56] Having key conversations[00:25:47] When communication breaks down[00:28:11] Just so you are aware[00:29:49] Simon's leadership tip[00:31:41] Takeaways from Pia and DanLinksConnect with Simon via LinkedInUnreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect, by Will GuidaraTeam of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, by Stanley McChrystal, David Silverman, Tantum Collins and Chris FussellChef Journeys – Simon's podcastLeave us a voice note

In this episode of The Mentors Radio, Host Dan Hesse talks with General (Ret.) Stanley McChrystal about his career, leadership, building teams, risk response and more. A one-of-a-kind commander with a new perspective on organizational dynamics, Ret. General Stan McChrystal is known for helping elite teams tap into the potential of their people to better compete in a complex and interconnected world. Few can speak about leadership, teamwork, technology and international affairs with as much insight can he. Ret. General McChrystal is the former Commander of U.S. and International Forces in Afghanistan, former leader of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) and co-founder of The McChrystal Group. His exceptional and innovative understanding of organizational dynamics has led to remarkable achievements in both military and business applications. McChrystal is the author of several best-selling books on leadership, building teams, engagement and risk management. After retiring from the U.S. Army as a four-star general, General McChrystal turned his expertise to the business world. He is the Founder and CEO of the McChrystal Group, which helps Fortune 500 Companies strike the right balance between hierarchical and decentralized team mindsets and structures. He and his firm focus on the power of network analysis and machine learning to strengthen how companies connect, internally and externally. As the author of several best-selling management books, General McChrystal offers a battle-tested system for detecting and responding to risk. Listen to episode below, or on ANY PODCAST PLATFORM here. BE SURE TO LEAVE US A GREAT REVIEW on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and share with friends and colleagues! SHOW NOTES: GENERAL (RET.) STANLEY A. MCCHRYSTAL: BIO: https://www.mcchrystalgroup.com/people/stan-mcchrystal/ BOOKS: My Share of the Task: A Memoir, by Stanley McChrystal Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, by Stanley McChrystal Leaders: Myth and Reality, by Stanley McChrystal Risk: A User's Guide, by Stanley McChrystal WEBSITE: www.mcchrystalgroup.com/

Chapter 1 Dissect the inner meaning of Team of Teams"Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World" is a book written by General Stanley McChrystal, along with Tantum Collins, David Silverman, and Chris Fussell. It explores the changing nature of warfare and leadership in the 21st century, with a focus on the need for organizational agility and adaptability.In the book, McChrystal draws from his experience as the commander of the Joint Special Operations Task Force in Iraq during the Iraq War. He highlights how the traditional hierarchical approach to leadership and decision-making was inadequate in dealing with the complexity and speed of operations in a rapidly changing environment.McChrystal argues that the conventional "silos" of departments and organizations hinder effective collaboration and information sharing. He proposes a model of a "team of teams," where different units and organizations work together seamlessly to achieve a common goal. This approach emphasizes transparency, decentralized decision-making, and a culture of trust and shared consciousness.Through compelling anecdotes and examples, McChrystal offers insights into the challenges faced by organizations in today's interconnected world and provides practical advice on how to foster a more effective, agile, and adaptable team. He emphasizes the importance of communication, trust, and empowering individuals to make decisions, while also encouraging leaders to relinquish control and embrace a more decentralized approach."Team of Teams" offers lessons not only for the military but also for businesses, governments, and organizations operating in complex environments. It provides valuable insights on how to navigate and thrive in a rapidly changing world, where interconnectedness and adaptability are crucial for success.Chapter 2 Does Team of Teams A Good Book deserve a Read?"Team of Teams" is a book that explores the transformation of traditional organizational structures into more adaptable, agile teams. The book draws on the author's experience as a senior military leader during the Iraq War, and it discusses the challenges faced by modern organizations in complex and rapidly changing environments.Many readers and reviewers have found the book to be informative and thought-provoking. It offers insights on leadership, collaboration, and the importance of information sharing in overcoming complex challenges. Some readers have praised the book for its practical advice on how to create a more effective and dynamic team culture.However, it's important to note that the book's relevance might vary depending on your specific interests and needs. If you are interested in leadership, organizational change, or military strategies, "Team of Teams" may provide valuable insights. However, if these topics are not of interest to you, you may find the book less engaging.To get a better understanding of whether the book is a good fit for you, you can consider reading reviews, summaries, or excerpts available online. Additionally, consulting with individuals who have read the book or checking the book's ratings on platforms like Goodreads could also help you assess its suitability.Chapter 3 Synopsis of Team of Teams "Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World" is a book written by General Stanley McChrystal, along with David Silverman, Chris Fussell, and Tantum Collins. It explores the challenges faced by organizations in today's complex and interconnected world and proposes a new approach to leadership.In the book, McChrystal reflects on his experience as the commander of Joint...

General Stanley A. McChrystal is a master strategist and visionary leader, the former Commander of special forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. The retired four-star general led the war on terror carrying out unprecedented success against multiple high value targets significantly disrupting terrorist networks around the globe. Standby for some inspiration as we delve deep into this exceptional military mind. His development of counterinsurgency warfare transformed the way special forces work. I'm sure case studies on the strategies and techniques he cultivated will be taught at Military Academy's and within special forces communities across the world a hundred years from now. General Stanley also the Founder AND CEO of the McCrystal Group, a leadership consulting group that specialises in teamwork and strategic planning. He's also the best-selling author of multiple books including; My Share of the Task; Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, Leaders: Myth and Reality, and Risk: A User's Guide- all of which I highly recommend. In this episode we receive a masterclass in leadership, we talk President Obama and bouncing back from adversity. I hope you enjoy.     General Stanley: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stanmcchrystal/ https://www.mcchrystalgroup.com/   James: https://www.linkedin.com/in/acceleratingexcellence/ https://www.instagram.com/jamesaking_/ https://www.jamesaking.com/   The Mindset App:  While the app is under development, we have decided to provide access to the full content for free on YouTube for a limited time. You can find the courses within the playlists section on our channel at the link below. I hope you enjoy. https://www.youtube.com/@AcceleratingExcellence

Brought to you by Productroadmap.ai—AI to connect your roadmaps to revenue | Eppo—Run reliable, impactful experiments | OneSchema—Import CSV data 10x faster—Tim Holley is VP of Product at Etsy where he leads the Etsy buyer experience. With a tenure spanning more than a decade, Tim has seen the company through many transitions (both in culture, in leadership, and in growth), and his team's product changes have had a significant impact on buyer retention, conversion, and global expansion. In this episode, we discuss:• Lessons from navigating corporate culture shifts• How Etsy capitalized on the explosive growth of e-commerce during the pandemic• Marketplace learnings: when to focus on supply vs. demand, optimizing conversion, and more• How Etsy solves the “graduation problem”• Tips for hiring product managers—Find the full transcript at: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/inside-etsys-product-growth-and-marketplace-evolution-tim-holley-vp-of-product/#transcript—Where to find Tim Holley:• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/timholley/—Where to find Lenny:• Newsletter: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com• Twitter/X: https://twitter.com/lennysan• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lennyrachitsky/—In this episode, we cover:(00:00) Tim's background(04:23) Tim's time away at SoulCycle and what led him back to Etsy(06:34) Lessons from the 2017 culture shift at Etsy(12:15) Etsy's guiding principles (13:32) How Etsy adapted to increased demand during the early days of mask mandates(16:38) What Tim learned about managing stress with his team during the pandemic(18:46) Lessons from building a thriving marketplace(21:47) Prioritization at Etsy(24:37) Supply constraint vs. demand constraint (28:43) Conversion wins(33:27) Experimentation at Etsy(37:58) Acquisition and top-of-funnel tactics(39:44) The seller referral program(40:33) Etsy's habit loop framework(44:11) How they set themselves apart from other marketplaces(51:23) Retaining sellers (53:23) The defunct Etsy studio(55:18) Running the product team(57:20) Who the decision maker is (1:01:20) What Tim looks for when hiring PMs (1:03:03) A reflection exercise Tim does with his teams(1:05:08) Lightning round—Referenced:• Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/• SoulCycle: https://www.soul-cycle.com/• Inside the Revolution at Etsy: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/25/business/etsy-josh-silverman.html• Ronny Kohavi on Lenny's Podcast: https://www.lennyspodcast.com/the-ultimate-guide-to-ab-testing-ronny-kohavi-airbnb-microsoft-amazon/• How to Kickstart and Scale a Marketplace Business – Part 3: https://www.lennysnewsletter.com/p/how-to-kickstart-and-scale-a-marketplace-911• Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World: https://www.amazon.com/Team-Teams-Rules-Engagement-Complex/dp/1591847486• Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman: https://www.amazon.com/Let-People-Surfing-Education-Businessman-Including/dp/0143109677• The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York: https://www.amazon.com/Power-Broker-Robert-Moses-Fall/dp/0394720245• Yellowstone on Paramount+: https://www.paramountnetwork.com/shows/yellowstone• Nara Baby app: https://naraorganics.com/nara-baby-tracker• Huckleberry app: https://huckleberrycare.com/—Production and marketing by https://penname.co/. For inquiries about sponsoring the podcast, email podcast@lennyrachitsky.com.—Lenny may be an investor in the companies discussed. Get full access to Lenny's Newsletter at www.lennysnewsletter.com/subscribe

Kip Lee is a designer and healthcare executive at University Hospitals Health System in Cleveland, OH. As Vice President of UH Ventures, he manages an innovation portfolio that supports University Hospitals' strategic initiatives and partnerships through product innovation and human-centered design. Outside of work, Kip serves on the editorial board of Design Issues, a design and innovation journal published by MIT Press. He also serves on several nonprofit boards. We talk about systems and design in healthcare.   Listen to learn about: Complex systems Design in healthcare What is the role of management? The COVID-19 pandemic's effect on healthcare innovation The interplay between design and management   Our Guest Kipum (Kip) Lee, PhD is a designer and healthcare executive at University Hospitals Health System in Cleveland, OH. As Vice President of UH Ventures, he manages an innovation portfolio that supports University Hospitals' strategic initiatives and partnerships through product innovation and human-centered design. Outside of work, he serves as an editor of Design Issues, the premier journal on design history, theory, criticism, and practice published by MIT Press, and on several non-profit boards. In addition to playing with his two kids, Kip loves used hardcover books, freshly ground coffee, low-humidity weather, and a good conversation.   Show Highlights [01:26] Kip's journey into design began with a love of drawing and visualization at a very early age. [02:36] Experiencing the New Jersey Governor's School of the Arts during high school. [04:11] Kip talks about cultural expectations and how that affected his choices as he entered university. [05:09] Why Kip chose bioengineering as an undergrad. [06:20] A brief time in architecture as a graduate student. [07:47] Carnegie Mellon's interaction design program. [08:27] Kip's revelation while attending the U.S.'s first ever service design conference. [09:40] The course that made Kip fall in love with learning again. [10:41] How Kip's studies in architecture and bioengineering have come full circle in his current work in healthcare. [13:51] Designing in complex systems. [14:00] Kip uses the military and warfare as another example of a complex system. [15:38] Looking at healthcare as a complex system. [16:54] Kip offers a pre-pandemic example of the challenges that arose in implementing a new technology. [18:26] Difficulties that can arise with terminology and in how language is used. [19:21] Vaccine hesitancy vs. vaccine readiness. [21:48] Complex systems are multidimensional, and aesthetics is often just as important as the technical. [23:02] Kip offers an example using PPE/masks during the pandemic to show why aesthetics matters. [26:06] The complexities involved in shaping and influencing people's behaviors and choices. [31:16] Dawan brings up the idea of shifting management more into performance facilitation rather than control. [32:43] A Miro Moment. [34:01] Kip likes Henry Mintzberg's idea of management as “controlled chaos,” maintaining the balance between exploration, freedom, and a sense of order. [35:43] The need for c-suite execs to stay grounded in the actual front line work of the organization. [36:46] Designers as rebels. [37:05] Kip talks about parallel developments in both design and management. [38:43] What can designers learn from management? [41:33] How the pandemic helped healthcare innovation. [42:55] Good designers and good managers both work to create the environment where healthy and exciting interactions and projects can take place. [44:46] Service design's uniqueness as a discipline. [47:09] The desire to serve is an essential aspect of what it means to be a designer. [47:39] Bruno Latour's benefits of design. [49:03] Many things that are aspects of design are also aspects of management. [51:10] Designers and managers are often doing the same work. [51:37] Dawan talks about shifting from “solutions” to “responses.” [54:28] Systems have histories and memories. [57:14] Kip offers thoughts and advice for others who want to apply their design skills in the healthcare industry. [01:04:15] Kip's last words about the design field as a whole.   Links Kip on Twitter Kip on LinkedIn Kip on Google Scholar Kip on University Hospitals Ventures Kip on ResearchGate TEDx CLE, Master Builders for the 21st Century Critique of Design Thinking in Organizations: Strongholds and Shortcomings of the Making Paradigm Hack from Home | Discovering Problems in Our Dwelling Place: A Design Thinking Approach Architekton Designing for Value in Specialty Referrals: A New Framework for Eliminating Defects and Wicked Problems, by Patrick Runnels, Heather Wobbe, Kipum Lee, Randy Jernejcic, and Peter Pronovost   Book Recommendations Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, by General Stanley McChrystal, Tantum Collins, David Silverman, and Chris Fussell The Systems Approach and Its Enemies, by C. West Churchman The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think In Action, by Donald Schön A Cautious Prometheus? A Few Steps Toward a Philosophy of Design (with Special Attention to Peter Sloterdijk), keynote lecture from Bruno Latour   Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like Healthcare Innovation + Nursing + Opportunities for Designers — DT101 E109 A Designer's Journey into Designing for Health and Healthcare with Lorna Ross — DT101 E45 Service Design in Healthcare Inside Multiple Business Contexts with Jessica Dugan — DT101 E22  

Kip Lee is a designer and healthcare executive at University Hospitals Health System in Cleveland, OH. As Vice President of UH Ventures, he manages an innovation portfolio that supports University Hospitals' strategic initiatives and partnerships through product innovation and human-centered design. Outside of work, Kip serves on the editorial board of Design Issues, a design and innovation journal published by MIT Press. He also serves on several nonprofit boards. We talk about systems and design in healthcare. Listen to learn about: >> Complex systems >> Design in healthcare >> What is the role of management? >> The COVID-19 pandemic's effect on healthcare innovation >> The interplay between design and management Our Guest Kipum (Kip) Lee, PhD is a designer and healthcare executive at University Hospitals Health System in Cleveland, OH. As Vice President of UH Ventures, he manages an innovation portfolio that supports University Hospitals' strategic initiatives and partnerships through product innovation and human-centered design. Outside of work, he serves as an editor of Design Issues, the premier journal on design history, theory, criticism, and practice published by MIT Press, and on several non-profit boards. In addition to playing with his two kids, Kip loves used hardcover books, freshly ground coffee, low-humidity weather, and a good conversation. Show Highlights [01:26] Kip's journey into design began with a love of drawing and visualization at a very early age. [02:36] Experiencing the New Jersey Governor's School of the Arts during high school. [04:11] Kip talks about cultural expectations and how that affected his choices as he entered university. [05:09] Why Kip chose bioengineering as an undergrad. [06:20] A brief time in architecture as a graduate student. [07:47] Carnegie Mellon's interaction design program. [08:27] Kip's revelation while attending the U.S.'s first ever service design conference. [09:40] The course that made Kip fall in love with learning again. [10:41] How Kip's studies in architecture and bioengineering have come full circle in his current work in healthcare. [13:51] Designing in complex systems. [14:00] Kip uses the military and warfare as another example of a complex system. [15:38] Looking at healthcare as a complex system. [16:54] Kip offers a pre-pandemic example of the challenges that arose in implementing a new technology. [18:26] Difficulties that can arise with terminology and in how language is used. [19:21] Vaccine hesitancy vs. vaccine readiness. [21:48] Complex systems are multidimensional, and aesthetics is often just as important as the technical. [23:02] Kip offers an example using PPE/masks during the pandemic to show why aesthetics matters. [26:06] The complexities involved in shaping and influencing people's behaviors and choices [31:16] Dawan brings up the idea of shifting management more into performance facilitation rather than control. [32:43] A Miro Moment. [34:01] Kip likes Henry Mintzberg's idea of management as “controlled chaos,” maintaining the balance between exploration, freedom, and a sense of order. [35:43] The need for c-suite execs to stay grounded in the actual front line work of the organization. [36:46] Designers as rebels. [37:05] Kip talks about parallel developments in both design and management. [38:43] What can designers learn from management? [41:33] How the pandemic helped healthcare innovation. [42:55] Good designers and good managers both work to create the environment where healthy and exciting interactions and projects can take place. [44:46] Service design's uniqueness as a discipline. [47:09] The desire to serve is an essential aspect of what it means to be a designer. [47:39] Bruno Latour's benefits of design. [49:03] Many things that are aspects of design are also aspects of management. [51:10] Designers and managers are often doing the same work. [51:37] Dawan talks about shifting from “solutions” to “responses.” [54:28] Systems have histories and memories. [57:14] Kip offers thoughts and advice for others who want to apply their design skills in the healthcare industry. [01:04:15] Kip's last words about the design field as a whole. Links Kip on Twitter Kip on LinkedIn Kip on Google Scholar Kip on University Hospitals Ventures Kip on ResearchGate TEDx CLE, Master Builders for the 21st Century Critique of Design Thinking in Organizations: Strongholds and Shortcomings of the Making Paradigm Hack from Home | Discovering Problems in Our Dwelling Place: A Design Thinking Approach Architekton Designing for Value in Specialty Referrals: A New Framework for Eliminating Defects and Wicked Problems, by Patrick Runnels, Heather Wobbe, Kipum Lee, Randy Jernejcic, and Peter Pronovost Book Recommendations Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, by General Stanley McChrystal, Tantum Collins, David Silverman, and Chris Fussell The Systems Approach and Its Enemies, by C. West Churchman The Reflective Practitioner: How Professionals Think In Action, by Donald Schön A Cautious Prometheus? A Few Steps Toward a Philosophy of Design (with Special Attention to Peter Sloterdijk), keynote lecture from Bruno Latour Other Design Thinking 101 Episodes You Might Like Healthcare Innovation + Nursing + Opportunities for Designers — DT101 E109 A Designer's Journey into Designing for Health and Healthcare with Lorna Ross — DT101 E45 Service Design in Healthcare Inside Multiple Business Contexts with Jessica Dugan — DT101 E22

#040 - In a world driven by rapid growth, how do you stay connected to one's inner compass and lead with intention, kindness and ethics? Join us for a candid chat with my good friend, Katja Forbes. Recognised as one of top 50 Australian professionals, Top 10 Women Disrupters and as one of Westpac/Australian Financial Review's '100 Women of Influence', Katja shares her learnings and wisdom from an illustrious career as a designer, design leader and entrepreneur.In this episode:Managing your inner criticHow to make it easier for people to give you useful feedbackThe highs and lows of running your own companyEthical navigation in the digital realmKnowing and sticking to your valuesand much more!ShownotesConnect with Katjakatjaforbes.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/katjaforbes/https://www.instagram.com/katjaforbes/From Purpose to Impact by Nick Craig and Scott A. Snookhttps://hbr.org/2014/05/from-purpose-to-impactTeam of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex Worldhttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22529127-team-of-teamsShow creditsIllustrations by Isa Vicentehttps://www.instagram.com/isadezgz/Music by Brad Porterhttps://prtr.co/Follow Design Feeling on social! LinkedInhttps://www.linkedin.com/company/designfeelingco Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/designfeelingco/ Twitterhttps://twitter.com/designfeelingco TikTokhttps://www.tiktok.com/@designfeelingco Facebookhttps://www.facebook.com/designfeelingco

BONUS: How I Planned My Wedding With Scrum, and Other Key Agile Adoption Lessons With Julien Déray Julien wrote the book titled "How I Planned My Wedding with Scrum" to apply his knowledge of Scrum to the process of wedding planning. Scrum provided him with a sense of assurance, clarity, and familiarity with the tools he knew best. By deepening his understanding and applying Scrum principles, Julien found that it helped him feel more in control and provided clarity throughout the planning process. Furthermore, working as a team with his parents and family members reinforced the collaborative nature of Scrum. Why Use Scrum for Wedding Planning?  One of the key questions is why Julien chose to use Scrum to organize a wedding—a big-bang event. However, Scrum's structured approach and iterative process lent themselves well to wedding planning. Julien found that giving a crash course on Scrum, defining roles and rules, writing user stories, and using personas to craft experiences allowed for effective planning and communication. Regular calls with the rest of the family and feedback loops enabled them to stay on track and adapt as needed. In the end, Scrum provided a sense of peace of mind and control over the process. The main takeaway was the sense of control and peace of mind that Scrum brought to the team. Key Messages  The book provides an accessible Scrum introduction for a broad audience, including those new to Scrum, and aims to convey the why of Scrum rather than focusing heavily on the how. Even for experienced practitioners, the book provides a fresh perspective on Scrum and agile methodologies. It emphasizes the usefulness and applicability of Scrum in various contexts, including wedding planning. Challenges in Leadership and Management  Julien emphasizes that as an IT community, agile methodologies like Scrum are already well-established. However, the challenge lies in bridging the gap to the rest of the company. Other parts of the organization may not be familiar with the tools and methods used in IT, creating a need for alignment and collaboration. Traditional management approaches, rooted in Taylorism, no longer work effectively in a fast-paced, agile environment. Key Messages for Managers and Scrum Masters  Managers and Scrum Masters are encouraged to trust themselves and leverage the tools they have at their disposal. Understanding the purpose behind their work and proposing ways to bring others along are crucial. Agile is not just a methodology but a holistic philosophy that can drive organizational transformation. During this episode, we refer to the following books: Scrum: The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time by Jeff Sutherland Turn The Ship Around! By David L. Marquet, a previous guest on the podcast Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World The Birth of a Chaordic Age" by Dee Hock. The Phoenix Project, by Kim et al. Julien's book is "How I Planned My Wedding with Scrum." And you can find the book on Amazon About Julien Deray Julien is a senior engineering manager at SwissBorg. His journey has moved him from coding to leading fast-paced engineering team. He has a strong focus an agile methods, to facilitate communication and work processes, and to allow people to work better without spending more energy. You can link with Julien Déray on LinkedIn.

In this episode of the WFLS podcast we were lucky enough to speak with not only one crime fighting Aurors, though two in Kirsti Grant & Phil Thomson. Kirsti is the VP People Experience and all around amazing person. Phil is the CEO and Co-founder and NZ Entrepreneur of the Year 2022. We sat down with them both to learn how People Experience is helping to shape the future of Auror. In this episode, Phil and Kirsti share the story of Auror from being founded by friends realising that $100B+ was lost every year by retailers but there was no effective technology being used to report, solve, or prevent crime. Now in Australia, New Zealand, North America, and the United Kingdom, Auror needed to re-look at their company values and how to scale this rocket ship for grown. Kirsti and Phil go deep on the successes and attempts they have taken over the years and how they are now seeing magical moments across their business by letting the people in their business shape the next phase of growth at Auror. We also asked Kirsti and Phil to share some things that have moved them recently: Kirsti suggests you watch "How AI could save (not destroy) education" by Sal Khan and Phil suggests you look at two books that he learned from life and death situations. Extreme Ownership: How U.S. Navy SEALs Lead and Win by Jocko Willink (Author), Leif Babin (Author) and the second is Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World by General Stanley McChrystal  Thank you so much for watching and listening to the podcast and please subscribe wherever you are reading this.

Dans cet épisode de Temps d'Arrêt, Coach Frank répond à des questions de dirigeants francophones sur des sujets tels que la stratégie vs la culture, l'avantage compétitif dans le coaching, l'équilibre entre travail et vie personnelle pour les entraîneurs, la composition d'une équipe d'entraîneurs et la normalisation de l'échec dans l'entraînement. Il souligne l'importance de la culture dans le succès des entraîneurs, de la capacité à apprendre en temps réel et de la normalisation de l'échec pour favoriser l'apprentissage optimal.   Notes d'émission Stratégie ou culture, quel élément est le plus critique pour les entraîneurs gagnants et précision de la personne? (5:10) Capital symbolique et «Team of Teams». (9:32) Bien communiquer la vision et l'articuler. (10:16) Le développement de la culture doit toujours précéder le déploiement d'une stratégie efficace pour une performance durable. (13:20) Quel va être le prochain avantage compétitif dans le coaching à l'avenir? (17:10) L'approche généraliste. (21:21) L'entraîneur va avoir une capacité d'apprentissage exceptionnelle. (25:44) L'avantage compétitif d'un entraîneur réside dans sa capacité à apprendre en temps réel dans sa fonction de chef d'orchestre de la symphonie de la performance sportive qui est multi disciplinaire. (28:30) L'importance de normaliser l'échec et les théories de la motivation. (31:40) Établir la culture et juger la performance. (35:55) Communiquez les attentes clairement aux athlètes en début des cycles annuels. (38:37) Modaliser les attentes.(39:11) Développer une série éducative progressif qui intègre la théorie. (41:34) Normaliser l'échec. (44:02) Mot de la fin avec Coach Frank. (45:00) PERSONNES ET ORGANISATIONS MENTIONNÉES Coach Frank Rodrigue Coach Frank | Coaching de Performance (drcoachfrank.com) Maxime Dautraix #64 : Leadership chez les coachs sportifs d'élites avec Maxime Dautraix, M. Sc. | Coach Frank, Ph. D. (drcoachfrank.com) Dawn Staley Dawn Staley: College basketball stats, best moments, quotes | NCAA.com Phil Jackson Phil Jackson | Biography, Titles, Teams, & Facts | Britannica Chantal Vallée Chantal Vallée - Head Coach - Women's Basketball - Staff Directory - Windsor Lancers (golancers.ca) Gordon Bloom Gordon Bloom | Kinesiology and Physical Education - McGill University « Team of Teams » Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World: McChrystal, General Stanley, Collins, Tantum, Silverman, David, Fussell, Chris: 0884752894823: Books - Amazon.ca Simon Sinek Simon Sinek - The Optimism Company Olivier Doucet #89: Leadership partagé, dynamique des équipes, culture organisationnelle, intersection avec la gestion en affaires, et followership avec Olivier Doucet, Ph. D., et Félix Bélanger, M. Sc. (drcoachfrank.com) Sean Payton Sean Payton - Wikipedia « Range » Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized world (davidepstein.com) Jacques Forest #91: Libérez sa motivation, répartition des récompenses, justesse dans les objectifs, et les enjeux du système sportifs avec Jacques Forest, Ph. D. (drcoachfrank.com) André Lachance (29) André Lachance | LinkedIn  

To set your business apart from your competition, it will take ingenuity and innovative thinking. Customers expect a continuously improving experience and to provide it, businesses must invest in the teams and technology necessary to retool their company to thrive in change. In the Season 2 premiere of But Who's Counting?, host David E. Hartley sat down with changemaker and Integrity CEO John Simanowitz to seek his advice on ways businesses can innovate to improve their processes and come to better, smarter solutions faster than their competitors. Dave and John discussed strategies businesses can employ to optimize their operations to make a more significant impact on customers, as well as the following topics:How John built a company in the business of changeStrategies to recruit the talent your business wantsStructuring your organization to allow experts to lead while management provides supportImplementing lessons learned from the military to empower change“You have to adapt your company to be sort of a purpose-built, talent mouse-trap, right? What do they want, and you have to create that sort of Disneyland for them. But also make sure that [you say], ‘I'll give you all the flexibility and all I ask in return is high performance.' And A players, that's what they live for. They love that.”   -John SimanowitzAbout IntegrityIntegrity is a St. Louis-based agency that works in UX, digital marketing, design and technology and has served clients globally for over 20 years. By offering the technical scope and capabilities of a large corporation with the personalization, transparency and approachability of a small firm, Integrity optimizes and advances businesses. For nearly two decades, Integrity has leveraged a winning combination of business and web consulting and technology to solve its clients' most complex challenges. Resources to Count OnCheck out these additional resources for more insight into Dave and John's conversation: Read Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World by U.S. Army, Retired General Stanly McChrystal for more insight on how the U.S. military changed tactics in the War on Terror  Learn more about HolacracyOne Management Solutions, which introduces a new framework for the workplace to replace the traditional management hierarchy  Careers at Integrity Make sure to never miss an episode by subscribing on Spotify, Pandora or Apple Podcasts and let us know what you think by rating and reviewing. Keep up with more Anders insights by visiting our website and following us on social media: Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram | Twitter

Tommy Dang is the Co-founder & CEO of Mage, an open-source tool for building and deploying data pipelines. Mage helps data engineers synchronize data from 3rd party sources, build real-time and batch pipelines to transform data, and orchestrate thousands of pipelines without losing sleep. Topics Discussed: Tommy's career journey in tech, and the core values he learned from working at Airbnb as a software engineer The mindset that guided Tommy in creating Mage and how this mental framework helped him efficiently utilize his energy and mind share  Mage's origin story and how it helps developers solve data processing challenges Product features and core design principles that differentiates Mage from other developer tools  The positioning strategy that's helping Mage gain market traction  Why Mage focuses primarily on data integration and data pipelines Mage's approach in marketing to developers and company decision makers  Why Tommy and his team decided to keep Mage as an open source tool, and future plans for monetization The biggest go-to-market challenge the Mage team has had to overcome,  and it's vision for the next three years   Favorite book:  Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World

Join me on the Fast Track to Grant Writer: www.teresahuff.com/vip Whether you think of yourself as a leader or not, you are. You impact and influence others whether you realize it or not.  We all feel the heat sometimes in this hectic world. Let's glean some wisdom from someone who's been in the trenches - literally. Today's interview is with a former Green Beret, Otis McGregor, and it's an honor to have him share his leadership and life lessons with us. Otis shares about learning how to grow as a leader, eliminating stress in your life, gaining positive structure for your day, and sharing the three aspects of trust that can make a huge difference in your success.   Lessons for Leaders from a Green Beret: Be clear in communicating to others what needs to be done. Clearly express how to do it, why it's important, and how it fits into the bigger picture. When seeking out wisdom about how to grow as a leader, don't pigeonhole yourself into only learning from people within your line of work. Great leadership skills and techniques can be learned from people in all different fields, implementing their tips and tricks into your wheelhouse. Accountability partners help keep you on track. When trying to make a large change, implement smaller increments of change at a time. This makes it easier to achieve the smaller goals. For example, say you want to start getting up early to exercise. When you get up at 6am normally, instead of jumping right to setting that alarm for 4am, start with 5:45am for a week, then 5:30am, and so on. Take smaller steps to make a long lasting, larger change.   Tips to Eliminate Stress and Handle Hard Situations: First things first, stop and assess the situation. When you realize you're overwhelmed, slow down, take a breath, and write down all the things that you need to get done. Once you have this list, use the Eisenhower Decision Matrix to help you categorize and prioritize. Another tip to help eliminate stress is to shut off your electronics to avoid distractions, and just write down everything that's been on your mind. Not with a goal to solve a problem or to create anything, but just to get everything out of your head. This can help us clear our minds and be more relaxed.    Break Your Day Up Into 3 Categories: Focus: This is a time in your day that is set apart to work on a specific thing or two that you want to handle and you do not allow people or things to sidetrack you. Do whatever you need to do to be unavailable to distractions. Flex: This is where a lot of us spend most of our time. This is where you're working on different things for the day and you're able to bounce around a bit more, allowing for interruptions or breaks.  Personal: This is the category a lot of us let be pushed under the rug when we're stressed, but taking care of ourselves must be a priority. Have you ever heard the common phrase, “You can't pour from an empty cup?” We can't be our best selves when we're drained. Take a walk, read a book, take a nap, spend time with friends, play an instrument, etc…whatever it is that helps you unwind and feel refreshed.    The Trust Triad As a leader it's important to learn the power of the Trust Triad. The Trust Triad consists of three legs of trust: Trust yourself: Believe that the decisions you make, with the time available to you and the information at your disposal, are the best decisions that you can make. Trust your team: Believe they are capable of doing what they are here to do. The team must be able to trust you: They must believe that your decisions have the best interest of the organization in mind. Not yourself, not a specific person, not the money in your pocket, but the organization's success.  Strive to create strength in whatever area is lacking in the Trust Triad within your organization and see how much stronger you become.    Challenge Question: What lesson will you begin to implement right now to grow as a leader?   Meet Otis McGregor: Leadership Expert, Author, Speaker, Podcast Host, Project Management Trainer, Rugby Coach, LTC, Special Forces, US Army, Retired. My passion lies in helping people succeed. I've used this passion through years in the Army Special Operations, coaching rugby and business. It now drives me to create better leaders. I believe that better leaders create better organizations, better organizations create better communities, and better communities will create a better world.  I worked as a Business Development Manager, Director, and Chief Strategy Officer for several companies. In 2009, I founded LTO Enterprises, LLC to help businesses win government contracts. In 2021, I rebranded LTO to become Tribe + Purpose, aligning with how we operate and our business purpose. We focus on creating better leaders to lead high-performing teams. I am a certified business performance coach and certified project director and trainer through The Institute of Project Management.  I retired from the US Army in 2009 as a Green Beret Lieutenant Colonel following 25 years of service. While in the Army, I had a broad range of experience from being a private driving tanks five years older than me; to an engineer in the Arctic, running heavy equipment in the most extreme arctic conditions; to leading Green Berets on complex and dangerous missions around the world. I also had the unique experience of being part of new organizations and creating these new units into cohesive, effective organizations. This experience ranged from Arctic conditions in Alaska to counter-terrorism units in Iraq and Afghanistan to NATO Special Operations Headquarters.  Being part of these organizations from the ground up has given me immense experience in creating successful organizations. I've used those skills and experiences to build successful teams, business units, and companies in the business world. I've led capture efforts and proposal development for large and small firms. These efforts have ranged from small task orders to multiple large entity Joint Ventures. In addition to my business development efforts, I ran multi-million-dollar programs for the government spread across the US and overseas.  I possess a BS-Engineering Technology, from Texas A&M University; MA-International Affairs, Naval Postgraduate School; Certified Professional Coach, Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (IPEC); COR.E Leadership & Performance Dynamics Specialist, IPEC; Certified Project Director and Certified Project Trainer, Institute of Project Management (IPM); USA Rugby Level 300 Coach. I create better leaders, host a podcast, build high-performance teams and wrote the book Enable Your Team's Success. I live in Colorado with my wife, Suzanne. We have three grown children living in the USA. Connect with Otis: Otis' TEDx Talk Website LinkedIn YouTube: The Cam & Otis Show   Resources Mentioned: Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World by Stanley McChrystal  Meditations by Marcus Aurelius Thoughts of a Philosophical Fighter Pilot by James B Stockdale   Free Audit: How Grant-Ready Is Your Nonprofit? If you need support in your journey to excellence as a grant writer, I'd like to invite you to join me on the Fast Track to Grant Writer. Go to teresahuff.com/vip and start learning today.  Do You Have What It Takes to Be a Grant Writer? Take the Quiz: If you're ready to explore a career in grant writing, take my free quiz, “Do you have what it takes to be a grant writer?” People are always surprised at how many skills they already have. The distance isn't as far as they thought. Let's figure out how you can use your skills to help change your world. If you're ready to step up your nonprofit game, join me on the Fast Track to Grant Writer. The world needs you.   Connect with Teresa Huff: Website: www.teresahuff.com   Take the Quiz: Do you have what it takes to be a grant writer?   Social:   • LinkedIn Community • LinkedIn • Instagram • Pinterest   Get on the Fast Track to Grant Writer:    www.teresahuff.com/vip

Mike is the author of “Leadership in Balance and Management in Balance,” the founder of Crispian Consulting, and a retired Army officer. Mike shares his thoughts on balance and equilibrium, and what that means for management versus leadership. Contained in this episode is essential advice for newly-minted leaders, and a discussion on learning tools. At the end of the episode is a great “both/and” challenge!   https://bit.ly/TLP-336   Key Takeaways [3:05] Mike played rugby as a Military Academy cadet. He had a lot of fun with his teammates. Rugby helped him develop into the person he is. [4:05] Jim met Mike as a keynote speaker, speaking about balance and being a fulcrum. Jim took a lot of notes. Mike defines balance for leaders and managers. It's not things being equal, it's the equilibrium of a work/life balance. Mike talks about managers spending up to 80 hours a week at work. That doesn't leave equal hours to spend with your family. When you're home, give them your undivided attention. [6:23] Mike teaches “both/and” as an alternative to the “either/or” way of looking at problems. The vast majority of things in life are not dilemmas where you must make one or the other choice. Most questions involve equilibrium or equipoise. Apply the right amount of each choice to where it balances. Mike says to be the fulcrum. Be the point on which balance is achieved. [7:49] Mike writes about four central domains in leadership: Communication, Adaptability, Focus, and Influence. You can find an equilibrium but the environment is constantly changing so your equilibrium will also change. Mike works with people to be ready for change. A key part of the model is situational awareness. What's going on in the environment that's different from your natural tendency? [10:11] Mike admits there were times as an Army officer when he should have given more direct orders. Instead of telling people why something was important to do, he needed to tell them how to do it. He didn't always recognize what the situation demanded of him so he couldn't be the fulcrum. [12:14] While doing the Audible version of his first book. Leadership in Balance, Mike realized that the four central domains have descriptive names. Communication is the Foundational Domain, upon which leadership is built. The other three domains rely on effective communication. Focus is the Purpose Domain. Adaptability is the Action Domain. Influence is the Mission Domain. [14:27] Mike's second book, Management in Balance, is out now. It covers four domains, Time, Material, Risk, and Change. [15:08] Mike addresses the mindsets of abundance and scarcity. What is your attitude about an abundance of risk, versus a scarcity of risk, or an abundance of material, versus a scarcity of material? Mike quotes former Green Beret Kevin Owens: “The most innovative people I know are poor.” The conditions are the conditions, so we have to deal with the condition, whether abundance or scarcity. [16:50] Are you seeing risks that are not there? Are you not seeing risks that are present and are you becoming reckless? The balance comes into play in that as a manager you have to deal with the current condition honestly and as it exists but you have to prepare yourself and your team for that shift that is going to come. Supply chain issues are examples of shifts. Adjust to conditions as they change. [19:39] Using an Army metaphor, you need to position yourself where you can best influence the action. You might need to stand back a bit to have a wider view and receive news from outside organizations. Or you might go to the front lines to direct people who don't know what to do. That's one of the ultimate leadership calls. The same principle applies in a business context. [20:29] Being the fulcrum is creating the ability for equilibrium by managing resources and assigning tasks. Mike says ultimately, time management is task management; how you prioritize and assign tasks. That's the nexus of leadership and management. Position yourself as a leader/manager where you can do the most to create equilibrium in these areas. Be open to signals coming from the environment. [21:33] Empowerment and subordinate development consist of pushing decisions down as far as you can send them. Stan McChrystal taught MIke to get the authority down to where decisions can be made most effectively. Mike notes that Ukraine is using that model now, based on U.S. assistance from 2014. Mike asks, are you doing it well, are you doing it right, and are you doing it in a way that makes sense? [23:04] The fulcrum creates balance based on where it's positioned along the lever. You, the leader/manager create balance by how you influence, position yourself, lead, and manage in these domains access your organization. [24:28] Mike discusses newly promoted “player-coaches.” Both of Mike's books are intended for new managers and also senior leaders who are responsible to promote new managers and leaders and he invites leaders to make these decisions thoughtfully and intentionally.[26:07] The first thing anyone entering into a new position needs to decide is whether they want a job or a career. Get it wrong and you will be miserable to be on the wrong path. And senior management needs to be able to look at you and see if you have leadership potential and the desire for a career. Are you willing to make the physical, emotional, and mental sacrifices that leadership requires? [29:20] Sometimes we get frustrating answers from asking the wrong questions. Sometimes our ego stands in the way of asking the better question because we don't want to know the answer. Or we overlook that we might have been wrong previously. Surround yourself with smart people. Put together a smart team with at least one person who asks, “What are we missing? What is another possibility?” [30:29] Always look for the third option. Don't let decisions be either X or Not-X. Having one more option forces you to think more deeply about the problem and how that plays out as a solution. Most of us quickly make decisions based on experience. Step back and ask some other smart people what they're seeing. Reframe the problem. Mike tells how he addressed an IED problem to improve mobility. [34:03] Remember that everything you do as a team or an individual is a performance cycle. A performance cycle has four steps: Plan, Prepare, Execute, and Review. Don't skip the Review step, especially if you succeed, because it will help you plan better for the next performance cycle. [37:21] Mike's next book focuses on management and leadership as a “both/and” proposition and will speak to executives. Mike discusses the risk to mission, the risk to people, and the risk to reputation. You have to know where those three types of risks are lurking. Manage to mitigate that risk to your people, your mission, and your reputation. Look for opportunities to find acceptable risk and grab market share. [40:43] Mike wrote the second book to define management, setting the stage for his next book, covering leadership and management. New managers always ask Mike whether management or leadership is more important. The better question is, how are they different and when do you do each? The domains for the Management/Leadership equipoise are: What, How, When, and Why? [42:45] Mike's challenge for listeners: Find the “both/and.” When you think you're on the horns of a dilemma, step back for a minute and ask, “Is this really an either/or proposition, or is there some question of equilibrium that needs to be found between these competing demands?” If you do that, you may find that you are more effective and a lot happier in your role. [44:07] Closing quote: “There is no decision that we can make that doesn't come with some sort of balance or sacrifice.” — Simon Sinek   Quotable Quotes “A lot of people, their thoughts immediately go to things being equal; … a balanced scale. … Balance is not about things being equal. Balance is about finding equilibrium; a work/life balance.” — Mike “The equilibrium comes in when you're home, giving them your undivided attention, putting your work aside, and getting involved in the things they're involved in.” — Mike “The vast majority of things are a question of balance, equilibrium, equipoise: to take these things that are in contention with each other and apply the right amount of each to where it balances.” — Mike “That's why the ‘be the fulcrum' thing comes into play. That's my reminder to everybody that you've got to be the point on which balance, equilibrium, is achieved.” — Mike “As an Army officer, … I wanted to be more indirect in how I influenced people. I was very much, ‘This is what you've got to do and this is why it's important,' not, ‘this is how you're going to do it.' … There were situations where I should have been more like that.” — Mike “I've been asking a lot of clients lately, ‘What's the most important thing that you do, and are you getting better at it every day?' And almost invariably, it boils down to their ability to communicate.” — Jan “Limiting resources can make people very resilient. The most innovative people I know are poor.” — Former Green Beret Kevin Owens, quoted by Mike Lerario “If you're in the retail business now, you've seen this roller coaster. You had a lot and all of a sudden, maybe people didn't have money, and then people got money and they're buying all your stuff and the supply chain gets impacted because there are 50 ships backed up.” — Mike “[Speaking] as an Army guy, one of the most important lessons is that you need to position yourself where you can best influence the action. In some cases that might mean that you're standing back and you have a wider view of the battlefield.” — Mike “The fulcrum creates balance based on where it's positioned along the lever. You, the leader/manager create balance by how you influence, position yourself, lead, and manage in these domains access your organization.” — Mike “I'm a firm believer that, especially with decision making, you have to find a third option, always. If you're looking at the decisions as, ‘I've got to do A or I've got to do B,' or ‘I've got to do X or Not-X,' you're going to fail. … You have a higher probability of failure.” — Mike   Resources Mentioned Theleadershippodcast.com Sponsored by: Darley.com Rafti Advisors. LLC Self-Reliant Leadership. LLC Mike Lerario Crispian Consulting General Stanley McChrystal Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, by Stanley McChrystal et. al. Leadership in Balance: THE FULCRUM-CENTRIC PLAN for Emerging and High Potential Leaders, by Mike Lerario Management in Balance: THE FULCRUM-CENTRIC PLAN for New and Reluctant Managers, by Mike Lerario Rand Corporation Audible Kevin Owens Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders, by L. David Marquet

Andrew Wolgemuth founded Wove to recreate the way couples buy engagement rings in a highly traditional and outdated industry. Andrew grew up in an entrepreneurial environment working at his parents jewellery company in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. After attending West Point and serving as a Platoon Leader in the Army's 75th Ranger Regiment, he attended Stanford's GSB's Ignite Entrepreneurship Programme where the idea for Wove was born.   Questions   Could you share with our listeners a little bit about your journey, at least your journey into entrepreneurship, how did you get to where you are today? And what kind of propelled you into that space? Could you tell us a little bit about your ecommerce company? What's the name of the company? As a business owner, you're operating in the ecommerce space and I'm sure a lot has changed since COVID. What have been some of your key learning opportunities that you've been able to capitalize on? As you know, we went through a pandemic, and now we're emerging out of a pandemic, how have you been able to still satisfy clients, meet their demands despite all of what was happening globally? What are maybe one or two key things that as a designer communicates with the client, they try to focus on to ensure that those things are manifested into the product to make people feel like they're a part of what you're purchasing. How hard is it to kind of lead a remote base team and leverage their expertise seeing that you're not all in the same space? And do you find that the customer experience is better because you're able to kind of navigate that journey, control that journey as much as possible, you have more control over the things that may impact your customer in a positive or a negative way. Could you share with us what's the one online resource, tool, website or app that you absolutely can't live without in your business? Could you share with us maybe one or two books that you've read, either recently or in the past that have had a great impact on you. Could you also share with us what's the one thing that's going on in your life right now that you're really excited about? Either something you're working on to develop yourself or your people. Where can listeners find you online? Do you have a quote or saying that during times of adversity or challenge, you will tend to revert to this quote, it kind of helps to get you back on track if for any reason you got derailed?   Highlights   Andrew's Journey   Andrew shared that entrepreneurship actually started for him in his childhood. Both of his parents were young entrepreneurs, they started a family jewellery company when he was just a baby. And so, much of his childhood was spent watching his parents start a business. And he thinks many of the lessons that he learned from watching his parents, both himself and his siblings took with them as they entered into the real world.   About Andrew's Ecommerce Company Wove   Andrew shared that their company is called Wove. They're www.wovemade.com/. And what they specialize in is custom engagement rings and wedding bands. So, essentially, the way that their process works, they match their clients with one of their in house jewellery designers, after they submit a short quiz on their website, that design consultation allows the client to work with a designer to discover their preferences, design an engagement ring or wedding band. And once they're satisfied with the design, they send them an exact replica of that ring that they can try on at home.   And really what this allows the client to do is try on a realistic version of their ring, test drive it at home, show friends and family and ensure that when you go to buy the final ring that you're getting exactly what you're looking for. So, it kind of acts as a way of allowing the client to buy with full confidence that what they're getting is actually the ring that they want to wear for the rest of their life.   Me: That's very cool. So, your niche is specifically in the marriage line.   Andrew shared that right now, they are focused specifically on bridal jewellery, yes. But they are excited to be launching their own jewellery lines, things other than engagement rings and wedding bands here before the end of this year. So, they're in the process of designing those pieces right now, they're going through the prototyping phase, and very soon they'll also have jewellery on their site.   Satisfying and Meeting Clients Demands Despite What is Happening Globally   Me: Now, could you share with our listeners, Andrew, as a business owner, you're operating in the eCommerce space and I'm sure a lot has changed since COVID.   What have been some of your key learning opportunities that you've been able to capitalize on? As you know, we went through a pandemic, and now we're emerging out of a pandemic, how have you been able to still satisfy clients, meet their demands despite all of what was happening globally?   Andrew stated that it's interesting, their business was very much grown out of the pandemic. Neither Brian, his co-founder nor himself really anticipated on having a career in the jewellery industry, this kind of happened by accident.   And so, it's a great question to ask, they started working actually with deployed service members back in 2020 when the pandemic was just starting. And those service members wanted a way to design and buy an engagement ring from overseas. And that way when they got back, they could propose but no one really wanted to take the chances of buying an engagement ring online and shipping it to a deployment address in the Middle East.   And so, they started sending replicas to service members while they were deployed. And so, it was interesting as they got home, and the pandemic was still going on and many of the jewellery stores were closed, many of their friends and family started asking for the same bespoke custom design and replica service. And really, that's how they got started, they recognized that there was a need for what they were building and people enjoyed buying an engagement ring the Wove way, better than the next best alternative.   So, the pandemic really is what allowed them to gain the early traction that enabled them to raise the funding that they raised and grow their team. But he thinks if there's one fundamental lesson that they continue to lean on is, test early and often and do it as inexpensively as possible. They've changed our product and process so many times over the last two years, and really allowing them doing those things early on, allow you to build the shiny, expensive product later after you have full proof that it's exactly what you need to be building.   Key Things As a Designer Communicates with the Client to Ensure They are a Part of What They are Purchasing   Me: So, your organization also focuses heavily on personalization. And we found, just through, of course, research and data that we get from like Forrester and some of top leading market research entities, that personalization is one of the things that helps to differentiate you in this world, regardless of the industry that you're in. Because clearly if the service is personalized, then it's almost like you're getting something that's not generic, and it's specific to you.   And I heard that in when you're explaining how it is that your business operates, the fact that the designer does custom made designs, sends you a replica of it, you can literally walk with a replication of it before you actually purchase the final product.   What are some of the things that you focus on in the personalization process? What are maybe one or two key things that as the designer communicates with the client, they try to focus on to ensure that those things are manifested into the product to make people feel like they're a part of what you're purchasing?   Andrew stated that at the most fundamental level, he would just say listening, and if that sounds very, very simple. One of the first clients that they ever worked with, he remembers very distinctly getting on the follow up design consultation after the couple had received their replica ring. And immediately one of the partners started to tear up and his initial thought was, “Oh, no, what happened, we must have messed up the replica ring.” And what she said was so poignant to him, she said, “I feel so heard, you incorporated everything that I wanted into the ring, into this design.”   And so, that was really moving for them and it's the way that they train their designers today is that listening to the client is one of the most important things that you can do. And not just listening, but actively listening, taking notes and ensuring that the design preferences they have are incorporated into the design.   But even taking that a step further, one of the things that they do is before a client ever gets on a design consultation is that they have them fill out a style quiz, which allows them to be matched based on their style preferences with one of their in-house designers. So, before they ever get on a call, they are doing what they can to match them with someone that they think they'll be compatible with from a style and design perspective. And that has made their process run incredibly smoothly. And allowed them to really meet the client where they're at.   Me: Brilliant, I love that. Absolutely love that. All right, so you're leading, how many designers would you say your organization has?   Andrew shared that a few of them are full time and a few are contract but at any one given moment in time right now they have about 8 different designers that they've worked with. So, not a ton, but that's enough to really cover the span of different styles for engagement rings, and so that's about the number that they're utilizing today.   Me: Okay. And these persons are pretty much remote based.   Andrew agreed, they are. And one of the things that's great about their model is that jewellery designers are surprisingly underpaid in the industry. And so, what they've been able to do is essentially create a job description that is exactly what any jewellery designer would want to be doing, which is designing jewellery, working with clients and ultimately seeing their pieces come to life.   A lot of jewellery designers that work for top brands will work in a tiny design office in a crammed New York City office building, they never get to meet the client, and oftentimes their piece is never built. And so, what they able to do is pay their designers more than their competitors in the industry and give them a job that's much more satisfying.   And so, because of that, they've been able to attract some of the top designers from across the industry, from major brands that you would recognize. And so, that's been really exciting for them to be able to attract some of the top talent for what they're building.   Leading a Remote Based Team and Leverage Their Expertise   Me: Amazing. So, how hard is it to kind of lead a remote based team and leverage their expertise seeing that you're not all in the same space? I know you still have a lot of leaders globally who believe that because we basically emerged out of the pandemic, they want everybody to come back face to face. But I gather that based on your business model, this has been how you've operated from inception.   Andrew shared that it is about 50% of their company is remote and 50% is in person. So, they do have an office in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, that office contains all of their manufacturers, a lot of their content creators and the operations people in the company. But our remote team consists of all of our designers, marketers, web developers, really anyone that doesn't have to be in person.   And so, it's fascinating. He and Brian, his co-founder both came from the Army, which is obviously very much an in-person organization. But he thinks a lot of the leadership lessons and management principles are the same. They do the best that they can to care for their employees, whether you're remote or in person have contact daily, ensure that people's professional and personal needs are being satisfied. So, they love the model that they have, they make an effort to see even their remote employees in person at least once every two months, whether it's going and visiting them or doing an off-site. But for them, that model has worked really well, and it's given them a lot of flexibility.   Me: Brilliant. Now, just to also confirm you handle everything for the consumer from start to finish. So, is there any third party like vendor that you would engage to, let's say, do the delivery of the product, or does your company handle from start to finish so that way you're controlling all of the touch points that your client will have with you.   Andrew shared that they handle just about everything start to finish. And so, the things that they handle are the design of the ring, they do all the manufacturing, all of their jewellery is made from start to finish in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. And because of that, they're able to produce a really high-end product and they're able to produce it very quickly. They produce rings in about 5 to 7 days, which for custom is about 6 times the national average for custom jewellery.   And so, they're really proud of that, the only vendors that they work with are diamond suppliers. They don't carry any of their own diamond inventory, they work with different diamond suppliers from top diamond sources in the US, all of their diamonds are ethically sourced, they pass the Kimberley Process, which ensures they're conflict free. And they also do a lot of work with lab grown diamonds as well. But really the diamond sourcing is done in house, but they purchase diamonds from outside vendors. And that's really the only thing that they do with a third party.   Navigating the Journey – Having Control Over Things That May Impact Customers in a Positive or a Negative Way   Me: Amazing. And do you find that the customer experience is better because you're able to kind of navigate that journey, control that journey as much as possible, you have more control over the things that may impact your customer in a positive or a negative way.   Andrew stated absolutely. And custom is hard, it's a hard thing to do at scale. He thinks the reason that they've been able to do it so successfully, is because they spent a lot of time investing in systems that allow the customization to occur in a way that's organized, they don't lose track of details and they have a method to how they produce.   But ultimately, he thinks it gives the consumer a one of a kind experiences that allows them to build something completely custom, they're not going to see their friend wearing the same ring that they have on. Everything is one of a kind, they only build their rings once for the customer experience. And as far as diamonds go, if you bought a diamond online through Blue Nile or Brilliant Earth, you're going to get to a diamond page and there are literally 10s of 1000s of diamonds on the page. If you don't have an education in diamonds, it can be extremely daunting trying to figure out which one is the right one.   And so, their geologists and designers walk their clients through every step of the process, will help you pick a diamond. So, yes, it is absolutely a heavy investment, but he thinks the customer experience is truly one of a kind and it gives their clients tremendous confidence that what they're getting is the ring that they want to be wearing the rest of their life. So, they're really proud of what they've built. But obviously he's a little bit biased, but he thinks their experience is certainly the best when it comes to customer engagement rings.   App, Website or Tool that Andrew Absolutely Can't Live Without in His Business   When asked about online resources that he cannot live without in his business, Andrew shared that they use HubSpot in a lot of different ways. HubSpot is their primary CRM, they use it for tracking their sales funnel, where their rings are out in production. They use it for automated emails and text and that engine has been tremendously powerful for their business and also gives them a ton of customization.   They knew that when they built out their CRM that they weren't going to be able to use a plug and play CRM template. And so, HubSpot gave them the flexibility to essentially build exactly what they needed on their platform.   Books that Have Had the Biggest Impact on Andrew   When asked about books that have had a great impact, Andrew shared that the most recent book that he's read is Amazon's Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon by Colin Bryar. He loves this book, what the book talks about is how Amazon goes about proposing products and how they go about designing products that they believe their customers will one, be excited about and two, that will be functional for them. And so, that's been a book that's really been useful for him when he thinks about how they're designing user experiences or providing tools to their clients that allow them to solve the problems that they face when buying an engagement ring. That is a great book.   The other book that he really liked, it's not really as much business related, but it's very team related is Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World by General Stanley McChrystal. Now, that takes him back to his Army days, but it's a book that he continuously goes back to because it talks about how teams function successfully. And he thinks it has a lot of good lessons that are good reminders for any type of organization.   What Andrew is Really Excited About Now!   When asked about something that's going on that he's really excited about, Andrew shared that one thing that they're very excited about that they are launching next week on their Wove website is they are launching the ability for clients to order replicas of Wove pre-designed rings. And so really, the difference of what that is compared to what they offer today is, there are certain clients that may not need the full custom experience, but still want to be able to try the ring on before they buy it.   And so, their designers from across their company put together what they believe are the top rings that represent both Wove as well as what consumers are looking for. And clients can either buy that ring right off the site, or they can order for free, an exact and realistic replica of that design that they can try on at home before making the big decision. And so, he's really excited to get that product live, it's going live next week, it'll be on www.wovemade.com. So yeah, check it out.   Where Can We Find Andrew Online   Website – www.wovemade.com Instagram - @wove_made Facebook - @wovemade   Quote or Saying that During Times of Adversity Andrew Uses   When asked about a quote or saying that he tends to revert to during times of adversity or challenge, Andrew stated yes, absolutely. A quote that he heard recently from one of his mentors that he really likes is that, “Failure is rarely fatal, and success is never permanent or lasting.”   And that's a quote that her refers back to constantly. As a founder, there are often times where you can feel defeated, things won't be going the way that you anticipate. And so, being able to take a step back and look at the big picture and rely on a quote like that is reassuring. So, that's one of his favorites.   Me: Amazing. Well, thank you so much Andrew for taking time out of your day, to hop on our podcast Navigating the Customer Experience. And just share some of these great insights as it relates to the journey of your business, your own personal journey, the importance of customization, the importance of leading a team that is even though remote based, that you're able to leverage their expertise in the highest possible way. And of course, controlling that journey of your customers by ensuring that you're giving and meeting those needs, those needs that are so specific to each individual in a way that will have them remember you for the rest of their lives. So, thank you so much for that.   Please connect with us on Twitter @navigatingcx and also join our Private Facebook Community – Navigating the Customer Experience and listen to our FB Lives weekly with a new guest   Grab the Freebie on Our Website – TOP 10 Online Business Resources for Small Business Owners   Links   Working Backwards: Insights, Stories, and Secrets from Inside Amazon by Colin Bryar Teams of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World by General Stanley McChrystal   The ABC's of a Fantastic Customer Experience   Do you want to pivot your online customer experience and build loyalty - get a copy of “The ABC's of a Fantastic Customer Experience.”   The ABC's of a Fantastic Customer Experience provides 26 easy to follow steps and techniques that helps your business to achieve success and build brand loyalty. This Guide to Limitless, Happy and Loyal Customers will help you to strengthen your service delivery, enhance your knowledge and appreciation of the customer experience and provide tips and practical strategies that you can start implementing immediately! This book will develop your customer service skills and sharpen your attention to detail when serving others. Master your customer experience and develop those knock your socks off techniques that will lead to lifetime customers. Your customers will only want to work with your business and it will be your brand differentiator. It will lead to recruiters to seek you out by providing practical examples on how to deliver a winning customer service experience!

Philipp Povel and  Malte Huffmann, co-founders of Mondu, spoke to Rudolf Falat, founder of the Voice of FinTech podcast, about serial entrepreneurship, the need to focus on sizable opportunity, and helping SMBs thrive.Here is what they talked about: Philipp and Malte –  what are your backstories? How did you get to what you do today, and how did you get together?  What's the problem you are solving at Mondu, and why is it worth solving? What's your focus?  Some commentators have started saying that FinTechs have gone too far with unbundling and Finance has become too complicated for no good reason. How do you see the pendulum? Have we gone too far? See FT article here: https://on.ft.com/3yzm2AR What is your solution/services? Why focus on B2B clients? Why B2B BNPL is different from B2C? Are B2B marketplaces maturing from nice to have to mainstream? Many FinTech founders are young and haven't experienced a recession yet. How do you keep on growing your business in a downturn?  What's your technology angle, or do you have more brilliant engineers than other players? Your favorite business books? Good to Great, Turning the Flywheel: A Monograph to Accompany Good to Great, Measure What Matters: OKRs: The Simple Idea that Drives 10x Growth, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World The best way to reach out: philipp@mondu.ai or malte@mondu.ai, or LinkedIn

During this episode, COL Mike Taylor discusses the US State Department's Global Engagement Center's (GEC) hub & spoke model for directing, leading, synchronizing, integrating, and coordinating the efforts of the Federal Government to recognize, understand, expose, and counter foreign state and non-state propaganda and disinformation efforts aimed at undermining or influencing the policies, security, or stability of the United States, its allies, and partner nations. Our wide ranging conversation covers the major components of the GEC, its data-driven approaches, and the importance of coordination within the US government and with allies and partners. Links: Cognitive Crucible Podcast Episodes Mentioned #99 Roger Carstens on Hostage Negotiations & Diplomacy Active Measures: The Secret History of Disinformation and Political Warfare by Thomas Rid The Fortunes of Africa: A 5000-Year History of Wealth, Greed, and Endeavor by Martin Meredith Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World by Gen. Stanley McChrystal Al-Mawla Tactical Interrogation Reports: Report A Report B Report C Link to full show notes and resources https://information-professionals.org/episode/cognitive-crucible-episode-106 Guest Bio:  Colonel Mike Taylor, U.S. Army, is the Director for Counter-terrorism at the Global Engagement Center (GEC), U.S. Department of State, in Washington, D.C.  He serves as the principal advisor to the GEC's Special Envoy and Coordinator on countering foreign Violent Extremist Organization's (VEO) propaganda and disinformation (CPD) activities.  In this role he is responsible for overseeing GEC CT operations and planning to include interagency and international coordination such as with the Communications Working Group of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS.  Prior to the assumption of this assignment, Mike served as the Director, CJ39 Information Operations (IO), Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, Operation Resolute Support (RS) and US Forces Afghanistan (USFOR-A). In previous assignments, Taylor served as the U.S. Army's Integrated Joint Special Technical Operations (IJSTO) Force Modernization Proponent Chief and as the U.S. Army Service IJSTO Chief, Operations and Technology Division, Operations, Readiness, and Mobilization Directorate, Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, G-3/5/7, Washington, D.C.; Branch Chief, Deputy Director for Global Operations (DDGO), J-39, Joint Staff, Washington, D.C.; Information Operations Field Support Team Chief, 1st Battalion, 1st IO Command, Fort Belvoir, Virginia; and J39 IO Chief, Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force Arabian Peninsula (CJSOTF-AP), Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), Balad, Iraq.   Earlier in his career, Taylor served in multiple tactical command and staff assignments to include as military advisor to the G-3, 1st Brigade, 4th Iraqi Army Division, OIF, Tikrit, Iraq; Commander, Headquarters and Headquarters Company (HHC), 24th Infantry Division and the United States Army Garrison, Fort Riley, Kansas; Commander, HHC, 1st Battalion, 34th Armor, 1st Brigade Combat Team (BCT) “Devil Brigade,” 1st Infantry Division (ID), Fort Riley, Kansas and OIF, Khalidiyah, Iraq; Commander, Cobra Company, 1st Battalion, 34th Armor, 1st BCT, 1st ID, OIF, Iraq; Plans Chief, 1st BCT, 1st ID, Ft. Riley, Kansas; Commander, Headquarters and Headquarters Troop (HHT), 3d Squadron, 16th Cavalry (CAV) Regiment, Fort Knox, Kentucky; and Executive Officer and Tank Platoon Leader with 2d Battalion, 72d Armor, Camp Casey, Korea.  Taylor enlisted in the United States Army Reserve and served as Wheeled Heavy Equipment Operator, 892d Transportation Company, Belleville, Illinois and Operation Desert Shield/Storm, Saudi Arabia.  Taylor's awards include the Bronze Star Medal with one oak leaf cluster, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal with two oak leaf clusters, the Meritorious Service Medal with one oak leaf cluster, the Army Commendation Medal with two oak leaf clusters, the Army Achievement Medal, the Valorous Unit Award, the Meritorious Unit Citation, the Combat Action Badge, Basic Parachutist Badge, and was also awarded the U.S. Armor Association's Bronze Medallion of the Order of St. George.    Colonel Taylor holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer and Operations Management from Eastern Illinois University, a Master's in International Public Policy from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Washington D.C., and is a graduate of the U.S. Army's Command and General Staff Officer's Course and the U.S. Army Information Operations Qualification Course.  Colonel Taylor was born in Biloxi, Mississippi and is the eldest of three children of a retired U.S. Air Force Chief Master Sergeant.  Taylor resides in Lake Ridge, VA, married to the former Constance (Connie) Lorraine Bremer, has two daughters Madison (Maddie) and Elizabeth (Ella), and enjoys cheering on the Green Bay Packers. About: The Information Professionals Association (IPA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to exploring the role of information activities, such as influence and cognitive security, within the national security sector and helping to bridge the divide between operations and research. Its goal is to increase interdisciplinary collaboration between scholars and practitioners and policymakers with an interest in this domain. For more information, please contact us at communications@information-professionals.org. Or, connect directly with The Cognitive Crucible podcast host, John Bicknell, on LinkedIn. Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate, 1) IPA earns from qualifying purchases, 2) IPA gets commissions for purchases made through links in this post.

Cet épisode est une rediffusion complète de l'épisode de Léa Mendes Da Silva sorti en deux parties en décembre 2021 et janvier 2022. Les ressources de l'épisodes Les liens Le site de PayFit Léa dans La French Touch et dans AARRR Appliqué Lean UX de Jeff Gothelf The Three-Hour Brand Sprint Rebranding a Freight Forwarding Startup Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World de Stanley McChrystal The Moment of Clarity: Using the Human Sciences to Solve Your Hardest Business Problems de Christian Madsbjerg et Mikkel Rasmussen Un podcast a soi de Charlotte Bienaimé Les autres épisodes de Design Journeys L'épisode #9 avec Mickaël David, Design Director @ Doctolib L'épisode #16 avec Solène Borrat, Head of Design @ Getaround L'épisode #20 avec Julien Hillion, Lead Product Designer @ Qonto L'épisode #24 avec Mathilde Gautier, User Researcher @ PayFit L'épisode #25 avec Morgane Peng, Directrice de l'Expérience Designer @ SGCIB L'épisode #29 avec Julien Clement, Head of Design @ Veepee Pour contacter Léa: LinkedIn Pour soutenir le podcast, n'hésite pas à mettre ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ sur Apple Podcast ou Spotify pour aider les autres designers à découvrir le podcast 

Read the full Show Notes and search through the world's largest audio library on Scrum directly on the Scrum Master Toolbox Podcast website: http://bit.ly/SMTP_ShowNotes. Yousef was working with a team that others call “trouble team”. But, as he observed the team, it looked like they were trying hard to do a good job. So he started working through 1-on-1's to try to get a better, more detailed picture of what was going on. In that process, he realized that something critical was missing for that team to work well. Featured Book of the Week: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Lencioni In The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable by Lencioni, Yousef learned how to diagnose a team by looking at their dynamics. He also learned a model that helps him work with teams and grow the people in it.  In this segment, we also refer to Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World by General McChrystal, and MobProgramming, a topic we've covered before here on the podcast. How can Angela (the Agile Coach) quickly build healthy relationships with the teams she's supposed to help? What were the steps she followed to help the Breeze App team fight off the competition? Find out how Angela helped Naomi and the team go from “behind” to being ahead of Intuition Bank, by focusing on the people! Download the first 4 chapters of the BOOK for FREE while it is in Beta! About Yousef T. Fahoum When starting out as a ScrumMaster and BA years ago Yousef passionately followed the ScrumMaster Podcast. Yousef is a SAFe Enterprise Coach at Elabor8 with experience implementing Agile and SAFe at some of the largest and most recognized brand leaders across industry domains in the U.S. and Australia. You can link with Yousef T. Fahoum on LinkedIn and connect with Yousef T. Fahoum on Twitter.

We are joined by CAPT Philip Malone, Commanding Officer of the Engineering Duty School for a discussion on the EDO Leadership Development Framework and how it helps in developing character, competence, and connections between Engineering Duty Officers.   Book Recommendations: Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World by Stanley A. McChrystal Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In by Roger Fisher and William Ury   EDO Book Club  If you have not yet joined the Slack workspace, join by finding the invite link in the "Book Club Announcement" on EDO Main. ED LDF

This week, Dan Neumann is joined by three of his Agile colleagues, Erik Lindgren, Hal Hogue, and Adam Ulery.   In this episode, they discuss a common question with respect to Teams: Should we choose long-running Teams or dynamically formed ones? These four Agile colleagues share today valuable examples on how to form Teams and practical ways to help Teams succeed at delivering high-value products.   Key Takeaways Advantages of long-lived cross-functional Teams: Teams get to know each other better and build relationships. Teams have working agreements that make them more effective. Stability! Much less coordination is needed. Cons of long-lived Teams: There is not much flexibility. There is the risk of losing alignment with the rest of the organization. What to do when someone's professional goals push them in a different direction? A Team could be kept together as long as possible but eventually, changes will happen. We always need to look for ways for people to grow professionally. What to consider when Teams are changing. Keep the Team involved with the decisions that are being made. When Teams change, the Team might be needing a skill that isn't available. Change is inevitable, be prepared for them. What are the Team creation methods that work best? A formal Team-forming workshop sets up Teams nicely for success, developing shared values. Having a clear understanding of the type of work that the Team will be going after and based on that, finding the matched skills and competencies to that type of work. Allow self-organization to happen. Establish what is going to be created first in order to set up a Team; those Teams tend to grow organically. Choosing a Team's name can help people feel they belong and gives them the ability to become part of something bigger than themselves. Why not both long-run and dynamically formed Teams? Decide with your colleagues what can work better, encouraging self-organized Teams, since it is always positive to decide how the Team wants to be organized for the task in question. The core of Agility is focusing on individuals and interactions. When to form a new Team? If you have some special project or initiative that may require deep specialties in an area. Some Teams can come together to innovate in a particular area.   Mentioned in this Episode: Listen to “Podcast Ep. 5: Exploring an Experimental Mindset with Adam Ulery”   Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, Tantum Collins, David Silverman, and Chris Fussell   Netflix Documentary, The Last Dance   Want to Learn More or Get in Touch? Visit the website and catch up with all the episodes on AgileThought.com! Email your thoughts or suggestions to Podcast@AgileThought.com or Tweet @AgileThought using #AgileThoughtPodcast!

If you're interested in growing in your leadership practice and being inspired to think differently and unlock greater personal potential, we want to give you a gift. Just click the link below and tell us where to send you 12 Ideas That Will Make You A Better Leader In 2022. Chris Fussell is the President of McChrystal Group, a leadership consulting firm based in Alexandria, Virginia and London, England. He became President in 2018 after joining the firm as Partner in 2012. He left the US Navy in 2012 after serving 15-years as a Navy SEAL Officer. Chris is the author of 2017 WSJ Best Seller "One Mission: How Leaders Build a Team of Teams", and co-author of 2015 NYT Best Seller "Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World". He is a Senior Fellow at Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, a Senior Fellow at New America, a lifetime member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a member of the board of trustees with the Naval Postgraduate School Foundation. Chris co-hosts the weekly podcast "No Turning Back" with Stan McChrystal where they interview the world's most consequential leaders. I mentioned this episode of the Craig Groeschel Leadership podcast about Leading Out of a Crisis.  

I'd like to begin this episode by acknowledging the land that I am learning and living on is the traditional un-ceded, un-surrendered territory of the Algonquin Anishnaabeg People.There is a lot of talk about what it means to be resilient and how leaders have to display a sense of resilience to achieve the desired goals.  In this episode, you'll hear from Mike Coyle, a former Canadian Special Operations Senior Officer and Vice-President of Reticle Ventures Canada, who will explore the impact resilient leadership can have on individuals, teams, and organizations.  We'll talk about what resilience is and why it matters, particularly during these uncertain and complex times.  Mike will share some important insights that will help established and emerging leaders build resilience in their organizations and transform adversity into an opportunity.Trench Leadership: A Podcast From the Front is humbled to have been listed in the Top 20 for Best Canadian Leadership-themed podcasts in 2021.Reviews are the best way for us to know what we are doing right, what we are doing wrong, and what we should talk about in the future, so please click on the links below and let us know if this episode was helpful. Connect Here:Trench Leadership Web-site: www.trenchleadership.caLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/trench-leadership-a-podcast-from-the-front/?viewAsMember=trueFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/Trench-Leadership-A-Podcast-from-the-Front-10027091202630Instagram: trench_leadershipYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ3DKPuh_ipqJqyeR0vv46QTwitter: @TrenchLeadersh1Iglen Studios: https://www.iglen.comConcussion Legacy Foundation web-site: https://www.concussionfoundation.caDispatches Adventure Ride web-site: https://www.dispatchesride.com Relevant Episode Links:Reticle Ventures Canada Web-site: www.reticle.caMike's Recommended Books:Antifragile - Things That Gain from Disorder by Nassim Nicholas TalebTeam of Teams - New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World by General Stanley McChrystalGrit - The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth      

I'd like to begin this episode by acknowledging the land that I am learning and living on is the traditional un-ceded, un-surrendered territory of the Anishnaabeg Algonquin People.Welcome to this special primer podcast episode of Trench Leadership: A Podcast From the Front, meant to highlight the principal points of your upcoming resilient leadership workshop, brought to you by Reticle Ventures Canada. There is a lot of talk about what it means to be resilient and how leaders have to display a sense of resilience to achieve the desired goals.  In this episode, you'll hear from Mike Coyle, a former Canadian Special Operations Senior Officer and Vice-President of Reticle Ventures Canada, who will explore the impact resilient leadership can have on individuals, teams, and organizations.  We'll talk about what resilience is and why it matters, particularly during these uncertain and complex times.  Mike will share some important insights that will help established and emerging leaders build resilience in their organizations and transform adversity into an opportunity. Trench Leadership: A Podcast From the Front is humbled to have been listed in the Top 20 for Best Canadian Leadership-themed podcasts in 2021.Reviews are the best way for us to know what we are doing right, what we are doing wrong, and what we should talk about in the future, so please click on the links below and let us know if this episode was helpful. Connect Here:Trench Leadership Web-site: www.trenchleadership.caLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/trench-leadership-a-podcast-from-the-front/?viewAsMember=trueFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/Trench-Leadership-A-Podcast-from-the-Front-10027091202630Instagram: trench_leadershipYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQ3DKPuh_ipqJqyeR0vv46QTwitter: @TrenchLeadersh1Iglen Studios: https://www.iglen.comConcussion Legacy Foundation web-site: https://www.concussionfoundation.caDispatches Adventure Ride web-site: https://www.dispatchesride.com Relevant Episode Links:1. Reticle Ventures Canada Web-site: www.reticle.caMike's Recommended Book List:Antifragile - Things That Gain from Disorder by Nassim Nicholas TalebTeam of Teams -  New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World by General Stanley McChrystalGrit - The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth           

Millions of civilians are caught in an unimaginable hell that continues to unfold in Ukraine.  But what's really happening on the battlefield? What weapons are making a difference? How are the Ukrainian and Russian militaries critically different? What critical missions in/around Ukraine might American Special Forces get tasked with? We've all seen lots of retired generals on cable news. And we've all seen quick videos on social media of tanks getting blown up. In this episode, we're going deeper in a way you haven't heard before. With a guest who knows more about 21st century battle than just about anyone. He doesn't just know it academically, he knows it personally. He's a returning guest and a true leader. Former Navy SEAL DEVGRU Commander, Chris Fussell.  Chris (@FussellChris) is a man who knows war. Steeled by leadership roles in the most selective Special Operations units in the military, he understands the chaos of modern combat. He led the most elite unit: the Naval Special Warfare Development Group (DEVGRU) and Navy SEAL Teams 2 and 8 on some of the most critical missions of our generation.  He joined us back in Episode 50 in March, 2020–right before the pandemic exploded. And a month later for a special Dispatches. Chris spent 16 years at the tip of the spear for America's most complex national security challenges and as Aide-de-Camp to Gen Stanley McChrystal as he commanded the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in Iraq. He teaches leadership at Yale, speaks to packed audiences, and coaches top leaders worldwide.  He's the author of the bestsellers, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World and One Mission: How Leaders Build a Team of Teams and now serves as President of McChrystal Group--an elite management consulting and leadership development firm in Washington.  A former wrestler and with a degree in philosophy, Chris is a true warrior philosopher. He has a Master of Arts in Irregular Warfare from the Naval Postgraduate School, and received the Pat Tillman Award for highest peer-rated Special Operations Officer. His thesis focused on the interagency collaboration and intelligence sharing processes that drove effective, cross-silo collaboration during the peak of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Chris knows modern warfare. And he's gonna break down the strategic and tacticial. The political and psychological. Almost nobody you see on TV or hear on the radio has the depth of personal experience in combat that Chris does. Or the mind to pull apart what's happening beneath the headlines. Every episode of Independent Americans hosted by Paul Rieckhoff is the truth beyond the news–and light to contrast the heat of other politics and news shows. It's content for the 42% of Americans that proudly call themselves independent. And delivers the Righteous Media 5 Is: independence, integrity, information, inspiration and impact. Always with a unique focus on national security, foreign affairs and military and veterans issues. This is another pod to help you stay vigilant. Because vigilance is the price of democracy. In these trying times especially, Independent Americans will continue to be your trusted place for independent news, politics and inspiration.  -Get extra content, connect with guests, attend events, get merch discounts and support this show that speaks truth to power by joining us on Patreon.  -Check out Chris' book: One Mission: How Leaders Build a Team of Teams   -Here's the video of the dancing Ukrainian troops that Paul's mentioned.  -WATCH video of the Paul and Chris conversation here. -Check the hashtag #LookForTheHelpers on Twitter. And share yours.  -Find us on social media or www.IndependentAmericans.us. -Hear other Righteous podcasts like The Firefighters Podcast with Rob Serra, Uncle Montel - The OG of Weed and B Dorm.  Independent Americans is powered by Righteous Media. America's next great independent media company. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Is your DevOps title “hip”? What does it mean? Does it matter? In this episode, the gang discusses the fundamental differences between dev ops positions based on “hipness”, as well as if it actually matters in today's world. In This Episode 1) What the “hipness” of your job means (and if you should care) 2) Why all of these positions refer back to this ONE important idea 3) The BEST advice to get started in dev ops (and how to not get confused with all of these fancy titles) Sponsors Tonic.ai (https://www.tonic.ai/?ref=adventuresindevops) Raygun | Click here to get started on your free 14-day trial (https://raygun.com/?utm_medium=podcast&utm_source=adventuresdevops&utm_campaign=devchat&utm_content=homepage) Top End Devs (https://topenddevs.com/) Links Shades of DevOps Roles (https://i.redd.it/3mcdo795sgh81.jpg) Picks Jillian- Lucy's Legacy: The Quest for Human Origins (https://amzn.to/3wdAiyR) Jonathan- Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World (https://amzn.to/3qfgrLZ) Jonathan- A Radical Enterprise (https://amzn.to/3ijt9Vn) Will- The Mom Test (https://amzn.to/3JoLHPU)

The son and grandson of Army officers, McChrystal graduated from West Point in 1976 as an infantry officer, completed Ranger Training, and later, Special Forces Training. Over the course of his career, he held leadership and staff positions in the Army Special Forces, Army Rangers, 82nd Airborne Division, the XVIII Army Airborne Corp, and the Joint Staff. He is a graduate of the US Naval War College, and he completed fellowships at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government in 1997 and at the Council on Foreign Relations in 2000. From 2003 to 2008, McChrystal commanded JSOC - responsible for leading the nation's deployed military counterterrorism efforts around the globe. His leadership of JSOC is credited with the 2003 capture of Saddam Hussein and the 2006 location and killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq. In June 2009, McChrystal received his fourth star and assumed command of all international forces in Afghanistan. Since retiring from the military, McChrystal has served on several corporate boards of directors, that include Deutsche Bank America, JetBlue Airways, Navistar, Siemens Government Technologies, Fiscal Note, and Accent Technologies. A passionate advocate for national service, McChrystal is the Chair of the Board of Service Year Alliance, which envisions a future in which a service year is a cultural expectation and common opportunity for every young American. He is a senior fellow at Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, where he teaches a course on leadership. Additionally, he is the author of the bestselling leadership books, My Share of the Task: A Memoir, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, Leaders: Myth and Reality, and Risk: A User's Guide. General McChrystal founded the McChrystal Group in January 2011. Recognizing that companies today are experiencing parallels to what he faced in the war theater, McChrystal established this advisory services firm to help businesses challenge the hierarchical, “command and control” approach to organizational management. https://www.mcchrystalgroup.com https://www.linkedin.com/feed/?trk=guest_homepage-basic_nav-header-signin https://youtu.be/kuoJbrwheJs --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/richard-lamonica/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/richard-lamonica/support

Cet épisode est la deuxième partie de ma discussion avec Léa. Vous pouvez retrouver la première partie ici. Recrutée comme Head of Design, Léa se retrouve rapidement dans la position de VP Design : elle ne gère pas que son équipe, elle participe au comité exécutif de l'entreprise et à la manière d'améliorer l'expérience utilisateur au niveau de toute l'entreprise. A son arrivée, Léa doit faire grandir son équipe. Il y a 2 Product Designers et une Brand Designers pour une entreprise en très forte croissance. Elle recrute alors de nombreux designers généralistes afin qu'ils puissent être le plus autonomes possible tout en gérant au mieux les expériences critiques du produit. Rapidement, elle crée un Design Studio qui regroupe différentes expertises : User Research, Service Design, Design Ops & Design System. L'équipe est donc séparée entre les designers attachés à une squad et des designers experts qui viennent en support des autres équipes. Léa revient sur la façon dont elle a structuré son équipe dans un contexte d'hyper-croissance et les profils qu'elle recherche désormais pour la consolider. Elle explique son approche, ses réflexions, ses réussites et ses échecs autour de cette structuration. Plus il y a de designers dans une équipe, plus il est compliqué de garder de la cohérence. Léa nous explique ce qu'elle a mis en place pour pallier ce problème : les rituels entre designers, le partage de connaissances ou le recrutement d'une Design Ops pour mettre en place des process. Au final, Léa a une très bonne métaphore pour résumer la façon dont fonctionne son équipe : le blob. Un être capable d'apprendre et de retenir, de s'adapter à toutes les situations, de fusionner avec d'autres pour être plus fort et intelligent… Son équipe, c'est un tout à laquelle chaque designer peut se rattacher, apprendre et grandir. Aussi, aborde-t-on un sujet difficile : la mesure de la performance des designers. Elle revient sur ce qu'elle a mis en place, ce qui n'a pas marché et pourquoi, ses questionnements et ses pistes de réflexion. On parle aussi : Du rôle des Directeurs Design De l'UX Writing quand on n'a pas de Content Designers De la systématisation de la recherche et de l'écriture De l'internationalisation des interfaces De l'accessibilité Des Design Principles chez PayFit, de leur création à leur mise en application De la place du Brand Design dans l'équipe de Léa A la fin, on aborde les moyens mis en place chez PayFit pour développer le potentiel des designers, les faire grandir et les garder, dans un contexte de forte concurrence sur les recrutements. Léa nous explique en quoi la diversité des profils dans son équipe aide à l'émulation. Elle revient aussi sur les process mis en place pour ajouter de la structure à l'équipe afin de donner une direction commune aux designers. Enfin, la mise en place d'un career path pour aider les designers à s'évaluer, savoir quelles compétences acquérir pour évoluer a été un atout précieux pour l'équipe de Léa. Les ressources de l'épisodes Les liens Le site de PayFit Léa dans La French Touch et dans AARRR Appliqué Lean UX de Jeff Gothelf Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World de Stanley McChrystal The Moment of Clarity: Using the Human Sciences to Solve Your Hardest Business Problems de Christian Madsbjerg et Mikkel Rasmussen Un podcast a soi de Charlotte Bienaimé Les autres épisodes de Design Journeys L'épisode #9 avec Mickaël David, Design Director @ Doctolib L'épisode #20 avec Julien Hillion, Lead Product Designer @ Qonto L'épisode #24 avec Mathilde Gautier, User Researcher @ PayFit Pour contacter Léa LinkedIn Pour soutenir le podcast : Inscris-toi à Design Journeys pour ne louper aucun épisode Mets 5 étoiles sur Apple Podcasts ou Spotify pour aider les autres designers à découvrir le podcast

This episode is a real gem, filled with wisdom. Co-authors General Stan McChrystal and Anna Butrico join me to talk about leadership, risk, resilience, adaptability and what they call our risk immune system. We discuss the risks associated with a global pandemic, special military operations, and how to navigate a complex changing environment in corporations. Show notes: General McChrystal was a green beret, ranger and paratrooper during his career. He is perhaps best known for his command of Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the mid-2000s. As you might guess, he was no stranger to risk. Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates described McChrystal as "perhaps the finest warrior and leader of men in combat I ever met." After retiring from the military, McChrystal founded the McChrystal Group in January 2011 to deliver innovative leadership solutions to businesses globally in order to help them transform and succeed in challenging, dynamic environments. Anna Butrico is an Associate at McChrystal Group where she focuses on thought leadership. Currently, she is the co-author with General Stan McChrystal's for their newly released book, "Risk: A User's Guide" https://www.amazon.com/Risk-Users-Guide-Stanley-McChrystal/dp/0593192206/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1639525798&sr=8-1 "Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World" https://www.amazon.com/Team-Teams-Rules-Engagement-Complex/dp/1591847486/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1639526621&sr=8-1 Both Stan and Anna can be reached through the McChrystal group at www.mcchrystalgroup.com

Customer Obsession with Charlie Herrin In this episode of the CrossLead podcast, host David Silverman speaks with Charlie Herrin, President of the Technology, Product, Xperience organization within Comcast Cable. They focus on the leader's role in creating a compelling vision and building a narrative in support of it. Charlie talks about his obsession with the customer and how technology can meaningfully improve a customer's life. He also discusses his personal routines and leadership development philosophy as well as his approach to leading change at scale and how you measure progress.“For me, innovation is not feature matching. Innovation is making someone's life better.” – Charlie Herrin [14:26]“People need to have purpose in what they're doing and it's not just a job. It's not just working on technology. It's not just writing code or creating a design. You're doing it for an end goal.” – Charlie Herrin [18:59]“The role of the leader is to lead and to model the behavior they want to see.” – Charlie Herrin [22:47] Resources A Walk Across America by Peter JenkinsCenter For Creative LeadershipTeam of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World by General Stanley McChrystal, Tantum Collins, David Silverman and Chris FussellThe Outsiders : Eight Unconventional CEOs and Their Radically Rational Blueprint for Success by William Thorndike Want to discuss some of these topics directly with Dave? Join the CrossLead LinkedIn Group. Episode Transcript DaveWelcome to the CrossLead podcast. I’m your host, Dave Silverman at CrossLead. We exist to help teams, individuals achieve and sustain optimum performance. In today’s episode, I had the pleasure of speaking with Charlie Herrin. Charlie serves as the president of the Technology Product Experience Organization within Comcast Cable.When I first met Charlie in 2015, he had just transitioned to the role of leading the customer experience division. He knew the team tasked with the largest NPS implementation in North America at the time. In today’s episode, we focus on the leader’s role in creating a compelling vision and building a narrative in support of it. We talk about his obsession with a customer and how technology can meaningfully improve a customer’s life. Charlie discusses his personal routines and leadership development philosophy. We talk about his approach to leading change at scale and how you measure progress. A proud father, husband, outdoorsman, an amateur photographer. Charlie’s humility and empathetic leadership style makes him a truly world class leader. Thank you for tuning in. Hope you enjoy the conversation that I have with my friend and mentor Charlie Herrin.Good morning, good afternoon, welcome to the CrossLead podcast. Today, we’re joined with Charlie Herrin, who serves as the president of technology product experience for Comcast Cable. Today we’re going to talk about leadership and we’re going to go back and talk about the leadership development from Charlie’s perspective over his career. So, Charlie, thanks for joining us today. I really appreciate you being here now.CharlieThank you. David, it’s good to be here and appreciate it.DaveSo let’s, let’s go through your life journey and example of leadership, but take me back to where you grew up in, and some of those are formative early experiences in your life.CharlieI grew up in a town called Ponca City, Oklahoma. My dad was a chemist and Conoco had their big R&D facility there. So it was a good town to grow up in a lot of opportunities for kids. Oklahoma was, you know, like most kids, I was sort of bored of where I grew up. I was really, really focused on backpacking and camping.I had read a book called Walk Across America by Peter Jenkins, and it really, I just woke me up to the idea of outdoors because my dad is not an outdoorsman.DaveHow old were you when you read that book?CharlieI was 13 and 13. It’s actually I read the National Geographic articles. That he wrote first and then. And then read the book. But you know, that got me into scouting, which I joined largely because they were going backpacking. In New Mexico, and I wanted to do that. And my other passion was soccer. I play a lot of soccer. I was I’m old enough to remember it was actually the first time they had. Started in my city. So I was like on the first team.But I spent a lot of time doing that. And so I was always outside. And when I went to college, which was at the University of Washington, it was largely to go to the Pacific Northwest again. I had this kind of bug for being in the outdoors, and I just wanted to to be someplace where I could experience a lot of adventure that way. Toyed with soccer at the University of Washington, but they’re far better than I am. So I did not go down that path.DaveSo when you got to when you got to Washington University. Talk about, you know, what was your major? I know you were an economics major, but talk about how that sort of shaped you from a from a leadership perspective.CharlieYeah, I went in to college thinking I’d be a history major and kind of pre-law kind of thing and was a pretty good writer. And that’s sort of what I was drawn to. But I ended up taking some economics classes and microeconomics classes. And I was just fascinated by the idea of. Evaluating how consumers make decisions, which is essentially what the, you know, that’s essentially what microeconomics is. Again, I just loved it. And so I kind of really leaned in. But I think from an early point in my life, I was fascinated with the idea of what consumers wanted and how they evaluated their options. And and I think that has served me well. I actually think as I got into the product game. And and consumer experience game and things like that. Is give me a lens that I think a lot of people just don’t use or maybe think about as a first lens. And that’s always my first lens is, you know, how would this benefit me as. A consumer and how would this benefit my family as a consumer? How would this benefit, you know, consumers in my community? And so it was a really formative for me.DaveYeah, it’s amazing that your college major actually was relevant to your job. So I was an oceanography major in college and other than the fact that I like to surf and I was a navy seal. There wasn’t a lot of overlap there.So the fact that you actually took core lessons from that and were able to apply it to to your to your world is pretty remarkable. You come out of university. And what was your first job out of college?CharlieWell, my first job, actually, I thought I was still going to do pre-law. I had taken the LSAT and done extremely well and kind of was off to going to go to law school. Just on a whim I interviewed at Andersen within was Andersen Consulting, its Accenture now. I remember that I took the interview because I was really tired of eating 19 cent boxes of macaroni. I was really, really living on the edge in terms of finances, and I thought, Well, you know, my assets are good for five years and I’ll just go to this interview. But I didn’t really care because I’ve been accepted to law school. And so I just. Sort of answered. However, I wanted to answer.It was a little bit like that Seinfeld episode where George Costanza sort of says the opposite of everything he thinks he should say. And it works for him, and it worked for me. They call me back and said, You hired the guy we hired. And so I went into Accenture Anderson at the time as a developer because that’s how they started everyone.You know, it’s interesting to me, but I found out pretty. Quickly I was in a great developer, but when I was really good. At was requirements and interfacing with with the clients. And again, I think that sensitivity to what they really wanted and needed and being able to add value there. That’s really what drove me. And so I was there for the typical two years and then hired on at McCaw Cellular. Which was the client I was working at. It was exciting. It was an exciting time.DaveAnd when was this, roughly?CharlieWell, this would have been about 94, I heard. OK. Yeah, yeah. What I loved about it was, I don’t know if you guys remember, but you know, in the early, early days of mobile. It was seen as a huge luxury and car phones and the big Motorola brick phones and the average consumer was sort of on to it yet.But I remember in employee orientation there, they showed a video where they told the story about what people really want. And how important communication is and how how important mobility is. Sort of the nomad. They kind of pinned it into, you. Know, we love travel, we love kind of moving around. It got me to really think about an inspiring vision about what you’re doing and how you’re sort of aligning to Age-Old truths about what people have always wanted. It opened up for me the idea of narratives. I mean, I could keep going. I mean, AT&T ended up buying us that I again was able to start to craft why that was good for them, how that can bring mobility really to the mainstream and got to work on some really interesting projects to to do that.It also showed me some things I didn’t. Want to ever do, which is like gigantic meetings. I remember going with b four of us and like 50 others. At the end of the introduction, the introductions alone would take half an hour. But but that got me to really start to understand teamwork and bringing together lots of different disciplines.And I was there for a few years and then I then I came to Comcast.DaveThen you came to Comcast. Mm-Hmm. Yeah. Why did you come to Comcast? What brought you there?CharlieWell, I mean, like, like a lot of people that have been fortunate in their career, I had some great mentors. And one of the mentors I had was a guy named David, and he had come from a McCaw cellular at AT&T and had come over to what at the time was Comcast Cellular business. They ended up selling part of that off. And he went to had the broadband business, and he called me up and he said, You know, you should come over here. It’s just like mobile. You know, mobile was in the beginning seen as a luxury, but.I really think this can can impact people’s lives. And so that’s that’s what really. Got me over again. Just this notion of technology. Improving people’s lives. It’s really been a constant theme in my career.DaveYeah, you’ve been at sort of the vanguard for that in some massive spaces, so what year was it that you went over to Comcast that like late nineties, early 2000?CharlieYeah, it was a 96.DaveAnd so broadband internet was it was just sort of appearing on the yeah, on the landscape.CharlieYeah, it really was. And, you know, we didn’t have it at the time. There was no self install option we had was one of the people on the team that were that were driving that project. It was early, early days. No retail to speak of certainly wasn’t mainstream. So again, a lot of that playbook that we had in mobile could be applied to to to this technology and this value proposition for customers.DaveSo you get to Comcast, what’s your first job when you, once you’re there?CharlieBut my first job was business development, I think director of business development you know, at the time, the cable companies had a venture with together. With this group called. At Home, and it was in the heyday of the internet. The first heyday of the. Internet, I should say. And so it was a lot about you know, establishing relationships and things like that but when at home faced financial difficulties and ultimately disbanded.I was given the task of trying to figure out what our portal was going to be. Email, all of that because I’d had some coding background at Accenture, you know, as a business development that you do a lot of those kinds of things. So we decided to go it alone and stood up our own portal and email, and it was really hard. But that’s ultimately what became. The seed for what became a lot of our interactive properties and and ultimately our product development teams and approach was that interactive group.DaveAwesome. So who is your competition then when you were going to what was it? That was it the Microsoft and Google of the world?CharlieOr, you know, it was AOL, you know, they were huge.I remember, I remember, you know. You know, why are we trying to do this? Let’s just do a deal with AOL and be done and I’m like, you know, look, we’re installing this stuff. It’s a great touchpoint for our customers. Let’s, let’s hold on to it and see what we can do, and sure enough. You know, we could compete there and we won by focusing on what we were trying to do, which was connect up homes and connect people to a vastly bigger world through broadband internet. And it was a little less about, you know, being the portal. It was, it was, you know.Sure, we had one, and we made money on it and things like that. But the real focus. Was just connecting this home, and then we started to put services on top of our portal like. Video and flash players and things like that that were really exciting. That gave us a lot of confidence to go kind of further into the interactive space.DaveAnd then from Biz Dev, what was your next stop in your career?CharlieLet me think. Well, I mean, it became product, essentially. You know, I was running the product. Yeah, it was, you know, running Comcast portal and interactive properties. And, you know, the features that went along with them, which at that time were things like email and personal web pages and stuff like that. And then that evolved into. You know, are you working on the TV products and working on the Infinity Home products and things like that? But it was it was definitely start to run product teams and user experience teams.DaveI think when I met you, you just come out of having run the Xfinity program, which at the time was the most successful product that Comcast had launched, both from an experience standpoint and just from a technology innovation standpoint. Maybe maybe talk about that experience and how that sort of shaped everything you’ve done since.CharlieYeah, I think, you know, when we decided to redefine television and really put the experience and delivery up in the cloud, which we call our X1 experience.I did not start that. That was already started by some really smart folks. But what I did do as I was brought in, we put a new UI on it and we spent a lot of time trying to solve, you know, the discovery and content and put that in quotes that customers have, which is there’s so much on how do I really kind of get to it quickly? How do we make it really welcome and an advanced sort of experience versus what existed before? And so I did run that product team and to your point, that was really successful. You know, I still think it’s one of the better UIs out there, and we really did it by focusing on the content itself and our Mission. Our mission was, A: to put a TV in every pocket, so we focused a lot on the streaming and, and mobile pieces.It was B: to get you to your content that you want faster. And so we spent time on search and discovery and different ways to do that. Whether it’s, you know, rotten tomato listings or whether it’s we had some really cool ways of searching, and then adding things like the voice remote ultimately was sort of the last thing that I was I was involved with.And also looking at that screen as kind of more than what’s on TV like, you can use that screen to, you know, see your security cameras, you can use that screen to interact with customer care, and that’s still something I believe strongly in. We’ll keep, we’ll keep doing that.But the focus and the mission that I gave the team was literally and we headed it at the beginning of every meeting. This slide was like, we’re here to change people’s lives and we’re here to to implement our version of innovation. And for me, innovation is not feature matching. Innovation is making someone’s life better. It can be complex technology that does that. Or it could be something as simple as, you know, sticky coats. But the focus is, you know, making life better and that the job of a good product person.I used to tell this story. My youngest bet you’ve met, Mave.She was four or five and she was opening this present, you know, excited like a kid always is. And she said, I never knew I always wanted this. And I thought it was proof that that’s exactly what a good product person should be doing. And so this idea that we’re constantly trying to figure out ways of making someone excited about what they’re using and have them to start to think like. I can’t imagine my life without this, like, what did I do before? It’s just such a… it was such a, It still gets me super excited just thinking about it. And so and so that is my passion and spent a lot of time there and, nd based on that success. They said, Hey, we have another problem for you, which is the customer experience piece that we’ve been trying to turn around for a while. Could you come in and and Focus on that? And I remember when I first got that gig, lots of things. First of all, that’s where I met CrossLead and you. But I remember getting a lot of questions like, Well, look, you’re not the customer care guy. Like, you don’t have customer service experience. Why are you in this role, right? And my point of view was. Well, customer service is what happens when the experience breaks. So we’re going to go fix the experience which is in the product. It’s in the sales journey, it’s in all of those things. And how do we make those things better so that customer service is reserved for this truly important times when you need it?And look, we’ve got a lot. We’ve got a lot to go for sure. But we made good progress. And what attracted me to that opportunity with Neil Smith, who brought it to me was it was really the chance to change our influencer culture. I wouldn’t say change because I think that the Comcast has always been really focused on customers and wanting to to do right by them. But it was a chance to influence a culture so that you could put some of the metrics around customer experience a little more, you know, in the decision making, in the business. And so that was really, I view that as sort of my experience with sort of culture and bringing people along together, like how do you bring, you know, tens of thousands of people along on this journey and get them to think about it similarly and value the same things? And then recently, I’ve been back in the product world looking back in the product.DaveYeah, yeah, yeah, it’s a remarkable story I remember. I remember the first time I came downstairs on a weekend when I told my kids they could go watch a show and I just sort of marveled at how they navigate it to a show and I’m like, My son can’t read into that voice remote. Was like, I think I was hacking the system by just talking into it. And he was like, Yep, that got me to the the picture. I wanted and then was able to click and much to my horror. I was like, Wow, you know, he’s now fully exposed to the whole world pretty quickly. So to the extent that you want your product to work for a five year old like mission accomplished, that was pretty, pretty remarkable.Go back to the vision statement. I think that’s really I think that’s a really interesting point to dig out on a lot of times, you know? You know, part of the role of the leader is to inspire people towards a new vision. The fact I’d love to hear more how you think about the repetitiveness, how often you to do that, to sort of actually unlock that capability set for an organization?CharlieYeah, I think what I learned was a lot of us, I think, make the mistake we put. We we put effort into these mission statements. Maybe you see them once or twice a year. You know, you couldn’t walk around the halls of those companies and ask them with what the mission statement is, what they’re there to do. Why are they there? And here’s similar things you’d hear very, very different things. I don’t know if you always hear the exact same thing. But I learned that pretty early on, Jim Barksdale was the president at McCaw Cellular, and he brought a lot of things from his time at FedEx. In terms of how you shape culture. And I just remember being struck by how everyone embraced it because they used it all the time because they saw it was in front of them all the time.And so when I was really trying to build out a product culture at Comcast. The idea that people need to have purpose in what they’re doing and it’s not just a job, it’s not just working on technology, it’s not just writing code or creating a design. You’re doing it for an end goal, and having an inspirational end goal is A: important so that everyone’s excited about what they’re doing. And B: is something I learned from from you guys. Having a common mission. And a common understanding allows you to make better decisions down in the trenches and within the teams. And so that to me, was was was really important. And what I found is you just can’t do it once in a while. You literally have to repeat it all the time, which is like all my own hands. Yeah, all the time. You can’t say it enough. And so I’ve taken that to heart and really think if you’re going to try to build a different culture, really get people to live up to your mission, they have to see it constantly. It can’t just be at the budget time or on a poster in the break room. You really need to sort of reinforce it and show that you’re living it and show that you’re excited about it.DaveYeah, no. 100%. If you think about the probably the most influential leadership lesson from from these last couple of experiences at Comcast, maybe tell a story around it that really helps, helps, helps the audience personalize it. If you could.CharlieI probably should have thought about this a little more. I mean, there’s so many. I’m the kind of person that thinks about these moments, and I just dwell on them all the time. I will say one thing I learned about what two things one is I was in my early forties because before I really am in my early fifties now, before I really realized that leadership was a discipline, you could practice and try different hats on. I assumed prior to that the people were either natural leaders or they weren’t.And yeah, and so I went through some leadership courses and Center for Creative Leadership was one. And I realized, you know, it’s. It’s it’s a lot about what you’re saying to the team, how you’re listening to the team. It’s a lot about communications and you should try some things.And so I forced myself in these all hands to try to be a better speaker to try to, you know, I tried a lot of different things. And so that’s one: one is that, you know, I came to realize that leadership was something that you could practice and you should look to others, read books about it and etc. I just it wasn’t in my sort of DNA at that time. It is now. And one of the there’ve been so many great leaders that I’ve worked for, but one that stuck with me because he was very different was Neil Smith, and what I remember from him was sort of just an unwavering courage and optimism about the mission and just extreme focus.But done in a way that was very friendly and collegial and collaborative. I remember when he offered me this role. He said, I think this is going to be a lot of fun. It’s also going to be really hard. And so, you know, I’m thinking to myself, OK, Neal. He’s a seal, former seal. So if he says something’s going to be hard, it’s going to be really hard. But that got me excited. And I remember that.DaveWhat do you mean by hard Neal? I wonder if we have the same scale for what that means.CharlieExactly. But I remember the look in his eyes that he’s genuinely jazzed about it, and that was the moment I flipped as like, OK, I’m all it. And so.DaveThat’s great.CharlieLeadership vision or leadership principle, I learned from that and, there were others, obviously great, great mentors. I’ve had the fortune to work for. But I just took that to heart and said you know what? The role of a leader is to lead and to model the behavior they want to see. And I think he did that really well. And so it doesn’t serve a leader. Well to sort of get down or get exasperated or, you know, they really got to show that. They are excited about what they’re doing and confident that it can be done. And so that’s one lesson I’ve definitely taken, I take it to heart.DaveTalk to me about your personal habits, like how you sort of set yourself up for your day, for a week, for your month, for your for your year. Are there specific things that you do that are so unique to you that may be perceived as quirky?CharlieNo, I would say, yeah, I do have a bit of a habit of it’s quirky now, but it’s it’s what I don’t have is, I think, what I aspire or aspire to.Which is sort of you probably wake up early and work out really hard and get your day going. I do that in spurts. And actually during this pandemic, I’ve been pretty good. So my day typically starts at five or earlier. I sleep less as I get older. But and I’m not a kind of guy that can get up right away at work. I’m just not. And so the one habit that I do have, which my wife teases me about, she calls it puttering around. But you know, I get my coffee. I read some email and I always I always read the news or watch the news, BBC or something like that or NBC.For me, it’s just having an hour and a half of quiet time to kind of think about the day. And actually a lot of the stuff I think about. I process emails and stuff like that but a lot of this stuff I think about is what we’ve talked about a little here today, which is like, how am I going to sort of. You know, support the narrative I’m telling in the meetings that I have today? You know, where where are there opportunities to influence, you know, towards the mission of what we’re trying to do?It’s a bit of a reminder of really what I’m all about and what I’m here to do I love that. And then, you know, it’s awesome. And then, you know, I have during, especially during Kovner, because I’m not an early morning workout person. I did start blocking seven to eight to work out, and so I’ve been pretty good about that, but other than that, I do have a lot of like quirky habits or. I find a lot of quirky habits, but not on a daily basis But now and then, I’m a big fan. Like, I’ve got four kids and in the evening, you know, try to get as much done. During the day so that I can have some time with them. You know, we’re big, big family dinner, people.DaveOh, that’s great. That’s great. If you go back to your early days as a as a scout and I know, I know you’re very successful, you went on to to to get your Eagle Eagle Scout badge. Maybe talk about what was like one of the core takeaways that you still live today from from those experiences is as a child.CharlieYou know, I would think, well, first of all, I was again very focused on the camping aspects of being a scout. So to me, it was it was about getting a bunch of skills that I wasn’t going to be able to get from from my dad. And know I would say. And I went on. My son is an Eagle Scout. I went on to help with his troop. I would say what I took from it was a notion of civic responsibility and just just the idea of. You know, doing things for your community I did not. And we’ve talked a lot about it. I did not go on to serve in the forces or anything like that, which has been a minor regret of mine but I do. Feel like as a, as a person in society, we we owe something to the community.And I think that scouting experience fostered that and then I would say as an adult leader in the scouts when my son was in it, when I was amazed by is just how accomplished and. Thoughtful these young men and women can be. And the potential is so much greater than I. Think we give kids credit for. And so I was I was.Truly inspired by the accomplishments of some of these, you know, 16, 17, 15 year olds in terms of what they knew about.DaveYou know.CharlieEverything you know, they just attacked it and with such a curious mind. And so that was that was really inspiring to me.DaveYeah, it’s awesome. I mean, obviously, the hope he prepared peace plays and it sounds like he’d do that every morning. I love the fact that you connect. You take the time to be thoughtful about your day in looking at the various interactions you’re going to have and saying, All right, how do I take that, that vision and weave that into these meetings? That’s that’s that’s that’s extremely thoughtful, makes a ton of sense and probably a practice that everybody could probably apply.CharlieI think you can take that into sort of your your your goals, too. Again, I’m a big believer in keeping track and keeping score. And so every quarter when it I say my goals were how my grading myself and I, you know, send that to my boss. And one, it helps the scope creep. It helps to remind your boss. What you said you were going to do. And two, it keeps you honest and it makes you a person of your word and transparency. Look, I’m not. I’m not getting this a goal done.CharlieAnd for these reasons, but I think it’s important to constantly revisit what you’re where you’re trying to do.DaveYou talked earlier or we’ve talked earlier about, you know, the importance of teams and sort of your your sort of development around those concepts specifically in this role because I think it was it was interesting. I think to be good for the audience to hear kind of unique is that position because you weren’t really in charge of anything, right? But you had influence over sort of everything. And so you really had to work in that distributed almost team of teams and time. Maybe maybe talk a bit more about, you know, some of the key things you took away from trying to drive a transformation from a centralized resource with a very strong incumbency in that, you know, and the respective silos and disciplines of the organization?CharlieYeah. And to me, that was a really fun moment, actually. And I’m not. Saying that’s just because I’m on a CrossLead podcast. But as you know, the story was you guys had given me the. Galleys of team of teams to read, and I was always away on a vacation and so I had this role and I had some ideas of things I wanted to do the piece that I hadn’t figured out as like, how am I really going to get all of these different disciplines to to chase the same vision and figure out how to do that?And in reading that book. I was so excited, like I wanted to leave vacation right away because for me, it unlocked the idea. That you can create a shared consciousness in greater context around a mission with some pretty simple communication tools.Some simple sort of team decision making tools and so that was an, you know, you were there. As we launched. You know what we called the forum, which was our sort of our company once a week meeting where we invited everyone to participate. And what it taught me was the context is so critical to the teams making decisions and it can turn things from adversarial. Into sort of pure alignment with just understanding a little more context and that’s that’s something I’m really driving.As I focus on teamwork now. Very smart folks on the team are very focused on their area of the business, not coming together regularly to understand other people’s parts of the business. This notion of a quarterly business reviews where everyone sits in and again, I pull those lessons from from CSX that. If you really want to give people the license to do what you want them to ultimately do, you need to give them full context and a very clear mission that we all agree on. And once that happens, magic because, you know, it just starts running itself. That’s what I learned. You know, one of the things that I chose, why I chose. The NPS system to implement was not sure. The score is important and the question is important. But to me, there were two. Factors that were the most important that I wanted to kind of get into the culture one was the idea of.Following up with customers calling them, you know, getting more feedback from them and using that rich, rich data to wine solve their problems, but then start to really look at it at a.DaveIt initiated their own priorities.CharlieYeah, I mean, I think it’s really easy to to look at machine data and believe your own data. You can’t argue. People’s perception because that’s what they have, you know, and so that’s important to have their perception is as a measure or marker of where they are with your brand. The other component and the most. Exciting component was this notion of Ian, the employee NPS about what you’re doing. And what you do in that process. You use. Surface, you have them surface at a very local level issues that are keeping. Them from accomplishing the mission. When you address them. And what I liked about NPS is it put everyone at a senior leadership team. On notice and accountable for solving those problems.They have to to, you know, because we elevate them, we track them we make sure everyone knows them.And it’s basically an insurance policy to make sure you’re listening to your to your employees because they know what to do. They want to do right and they know how to solve the problem, and you’ve got to sort of listen to them. Yeah.And so that was that was really important. And I think the whole stakes. Journey also taught me just the importance of, you know, your frontline workers in terms of listening to their ideas and trying to make their job easier so they can do the job that you want them to do, which is take care of the customer. And that, to me, is. More important than any kind of score is. That we have a system now and when I walk I guess I haven’t walked through the halls in a while, but when I used to walk through the halls. The things that made me the most proud about that. Whole period of my career was hearing. People in meetings talking about in peace as part of their decision making or product feature or whatever, and it’s in every single meeting, in every single function, you know, legal, finance. Billing and that to me was OK. It’s part of our DNA, is part of our culture. That’s the most proud thing I have of that whole period.DaveYeah, that’s a great example of culture change right there. You know, being on a sort of management and it’s hard to quantify culture, oftentimes it’s sort of like oxygen. You don’t really notice it until it’s missing, right? When you get that, when you get those insights just by walking around. We used to call it troop in the line, right? You go out and they’re in their foxholes, in the front lines and just sort of hear what the men and women are talking about. And and when you hear them repeating back narratives that you’re trying to push at the top, you feel you feel great.CharlieYeah.DaveWho say it’s not important who I am and what you’re saying. And that’s great. It’s awesome. OK? As you think about. So I mean, that’s a good segue way into the last year and a half have been incredibly challenging for a lot of people. And I know, you know, specifically the work environment I’d love to hear, you know, specifically how you guys have sort of dealt with the pandemic and and how you’re thinking about your team and Asia as it sort of return to work opportunities, startups and how you’re thinking about best practice coming out of that?CharlieWell, the first thing is we’ve always placed. Employee safety as a as a super high priority. So that is guided everything for us. And so early on, you know, it was like, All right, how do we keep our employees. Safe and. Still try to. Accomplish the things we want to do as a business and get customers hooked up to, you know, because now they’re even more focused on on staying connected. So one of the things I’m really proud of is we moved, you know. Tens of thousands of employees to work from home within 60 days. And we did it in a secure way with a scalable VPN and a lot of creative technologists and just hard elbow grease to get that done. And with with the idea that we can make them productive and happy at home.And not place them in harm’s way by having them come in to sort of open floor plan call centers and things like that. So that I think going in, we didn’t know how easy or hard. Well, we knew it’s gonna be hard. We didn’t know how successful we were going to be, but we were very successful. And I think the employees reflected. That terms. We love that you’re focused on us, that you’re focused on our safety and health. And then talking about doing.Doing a good job and as a as an employee. And I just think that that was. Such a proud moment for us to be able to do that. The other the other one was, you know, again, some the network performed really well amidst a huge surge in traffic, and we were able to deploy some really smart technology and AI into our network to to make sure that it continued to do that.And so I think it showed us that preparing your core. Assets and applying technology in a smart way, you know, for these unexpected moments is just so critical. So we learned that about ourselves as we think about. Coming back to the office. You know, first of all, working remotely. And using the software we use as Microsoft Teams. Just I think it surprised everyone. We how good it was in terms of being able to. Accomplish our goals, launch products remotely, you know, gather as a team to to make decisions, and it’s just really positive experience.And so as we come back into the office because we do feel like, you know. The collaboration and co-location and things like that are very important will be. Will understand how to be more flexible. But I think what it’s. Taught us is the importance of distributed locations. How do you include, you know, your, your development centers. In. India or Israel or Denver and really bring the teams together? That’s been a lesson we’ve learned. But I think as we go back, we are looking forward to getting. Back and being together and driving those that teamwork. But we’ll have some tools, some extra tools. To be even more connected and even more flexible, and we need to be.DaveAwesome. Yeah. You know, it’s interesting. I was having this conversation with some, some other executives recently as they think about navigating this. And I think a lot of a lot of people, specifically, they’re in a position to make decisions around this are sort of wrestling with, is it back to five days or is it only going to be a hybrid or whatever else? And you know, my my thought is once people learn a new skill and learn new muscle like they’re never going to go back to exactly the way it was just going to have an expanded toolkit to do stuff. And I still think the most effective form of communication is in person face to face. Yeah. So for those you know, those really, you know, high, impactful sessions that are needed, just they’re still going to be a requirement to do that. But I think we’ve all learned that there’s the ability to sort of operate, like you said, in a distributed manner, be effective going back to, you know, the team, a team story for a second. You know, we we set up our physical infrastructure around the globe realizing that the majority of the people that need to be involved in the night’s operation. We’re not going to be physically present, not because of some pandemic, just because of. Right, right. The laws of physics and distribute. So we actually designed our spaces with that in mind, meaning like we knew that most of our conversation was going to be have to be in a virtual setting and the people in the room were important, but you know, it was trying to. Index to make sure they were inclusive was what I love about what I love about how teams and when you go to fully virtual is not everybody has the same experience because they’re through a common platform coming back to some hybrid model where you’re going to, you’re probably going to have a scenario where. You got some people in the room and other people out of the room, but you still got to get the same thing done. It’ll be interesting to see how people people sort of navigate that, but that was like, you know, a critical insight because it was just a constraint that existed for us. So it wasn’t an option to get it the other way.CharlieYeah, I think two things. one is we’re also sort of retooling our rooms for this notion of a more inclusive environment with remote workers, whether they’re individually promoting or. Or, as I mentioned, one of our dev locations that. The key one of the things that we’re doing, which. Is the key thing that I think everyone feels like they really missed was especially on engineering side, it was this kind of whiteboarding. I think that virtual whiteboard. Is just as hard. As you get your whiteboard there. So one of the things we’re doing is. Setting up cameras on the whiteboards and we’ll see. How we’re going to how that goes. And we’re going to we’re going to start going In some of us just to test it out here and a little bit.But I do think I think the second thing is, I think all of. The participants of a meeting are going to be a lot more in tune with the fact that there are remote folks. Prior to COVID, we had have all these sort. Of we try to have these rules of, Hey. If you’ve got someone remote, don’t forget to ask them their opinion. You know, we had these, you know, don’t close that meeting without asking anyone on the phone, you know, their thoughts. That kind of thing, because we were trying to reinforce this notion of, don’t forget. And I think. That will be a problem anymore. So I’m looking forward to.That better, better team cohesion. But it is going to be, you know, we don’t know yet. We’re going to learn. Our way through it. Like, think most like most of your companies?DaveAwesome. So to last question. first of all, what are you guys working on now? Like, what are your top, you know, key priorities and you know, on your own leadership development, like what do you what do you kind of like focusing on are finding the time to read or think about now?CharlieWell, as I as I set up the structure, it’s really trying to figure out how do I drive more contextual, better alignment with the teams, including some of our stakeholder partners? That’s like not a new problem, but it’s I’m sure that we are persistent or that you’ve always got to work on and you can always get better at. And I think it doesn’t get better without a very. sIntentional way of doing it. So I’m looking at some training to help with that.You know, I think, you know, a lot of that. We did a lot. Of listening sessions with our DNI efforts. Listening sessions are actually part of NPS. We call them huddles. So some of the training I’m looking at. Is how to have conversations. How do you have really honest, hard conversations, but not in an adversarial way? And there’s. There’s some good. Material out there, so I’m going to be kind of focused on that. And then the second thing we’re focused on is how do we really set our. Ourselves up for the future of what the home is going to be and spending a lot of time really looking at really, really where customers are going to want home? How are they going to?What kinds of entertainment are they going to want and getting. Back to some some strategies? One of the things I’m interested in doing.Is is driving sort of a ten year strategy cycle within the group. A lot of companies will do five year plans or three year plans. And how do you sort of have a rolling ten year kind of plan on on again?Less about the finances, but more about where.Consumer trends are going to be and how do we really make sure that we’re applying our innovation and our resources in a smart way to make sure that those are seen and worked into our products in a real way?So those are sort of the two big.Sort of new cultural things I’m working on.And then other than that, we’re going to keep driving.Connecting homes, you know, and people, whether it’s some of the mobile products we’re launching now.Or.We’re going all broadband and some of our new forms of entertainment, you know, it’s just it’s a busy, busy world as you as, you know, lots of product changes. But it’s.Exciting. And so, you know, continuing.To focus on what we want to do and not kind of chasing what others are doing is always about.Also making sure that you’re staying true to what you think you can build as is key to me.DaveThat’s great. That’s great. What’s the most recent like book you’ve read or the movie you’ve seen or show you’ve watched or something? That’s that you found interesting that maybe the audience could benefit from?CharlieYou know, I was trying to look at I was trying to look up the title of this book I read, I will get it to you. But it was really about.Successful leaders and CEOs.And how they thought about.Capital allocation.Again, I apologize. I can’t think of the title I need to look at because.DaveThe main theme in a couple of months. The main thing was, look here eight CEOs. And they were some of the most successful CEOs in history. And they may not have been the high flying ones you’ve heard of. But they really return shareholder value because they thought constantly about how they were allocating capital and just sort of the thought process that they went through and I think that is increasingly. Something that I’m certainly spending more time thinking about as well because you do, you have to shut down. Some things to start new with new things, and that’s hard. But you know, the people that either through instinct or. In this case, you know, just really good studying of where things are going. They’ve been able to make those those choices. So I apologize. I don’t have the name of the book, but all I know.Is we’ll make sure we capture it in there and in the of notes. That’s awesome, though. It’s awesome, and I think it makes a ton of sense, you know, thinking about prioritization and how you make some decisions about, you know, at the local level.But then at the more strategic level where you’re at, it really comes down to where are you going to make that capital wise and in bringing out the right process that’s actually driving that ten year vision you’re talking about is is. Really important. Try. Thanks so much for taking time with us today. We really appreciate it was awesome having you on the CrossLead podcast. Any final thoughts or comments?CharlieNo. Again, I appreciate and honored that you asked me to participate. I’ve learned so much from listening to others. Talk about their experiences. Certainly learned a lot from you.Just how hopeful can be helpful to someone again. The notion of high performing teams and how you organize that is is, to your point, it’s a persistent problem. So I think you’re doing good work and it’s critical.DaveIf the listeners want to learn more about you or follow you. Is there even a way to do that given your own position? Yeah, people are going to love this question.CharlieYeah. And honestly, you know, I’m not active on the social media platforms, so I think you probably just need to look for. I know that, you know, I’ve got some some of my keynotes out there. You can watch them. And, you know, once COVID kind of gets better and we’re traveling more, I’m sure I’ll be. I’ll be doing some conferences and things like that.DaveAwesome. All right. Well, thank you, Charli.e. I really appreciate you spending time with us today.CharlieLikewise. Thank you.Daveone more thing before we finish the episode, the CrossLead podcast is produced by the team at Truth Work Media. I want to make this the best leadership podcast available, so I would love to get your feedback. Our goal this season is to have authentic conversations with special operators, business leaders and thought leaders on the topics of leadership and agility. If you have any feedback, suggested topics or leaders that you want to hear from these, email me at contact@crosslead.com. If you found this episode interesting. Please share it with a friend and drop us a rating until next time. Thank you for joining.

CrossLead TeaserHow do elite teams achieve and sustain optimal performance?The CrossLead Podcast is here to help teams and individuals achieve and sustain optimal performance — with lessons from Special Operations, Business, Professional Sports and Academia. Our goal with this podcast is to engage with our community of partners and thought leaders to discuss the themes we come across most frequently to the public domain that our broader community can benefit from. In our conversations we will explore the fundamentals of elite teams — Common Purpose, Shared Consciousness, Trust, and Empowered Execution.  We want to hear from you. Send your thoughts and feedback to contact@crosslead.comLooking for some help with your own business transformation? Visit www.crosslead.com ResourcesWant to discuss some of these topics directly with Dave? Join the CrossLead LinkedIn Group.Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World by General Stanley McChrystal, Tantum Collins, David Silverman and Chris Fussell /*! elementor - v3.19.0 - 05-02-2024 */ .elementor-widget-image{text-align:center}.elementor-widget-image a{display:inline-block}.elementor-widget-image a img[src$=".svg"]{width:48px}.elementor-widget-image img{vertical-align:middle;display:inline-block} Episode Transcript Here’s a question how do you define high performance in today’s rapidly changing environment? Now more than ever. Uncertainty rules a day and constant adaptation is mission critical to success. But change is hard, and there’s temptation for all of us to blame failure on factors outside our control.I don’t have the information I need to do my job. We weren’t treated fairly. I have too many priorities and not enough time. We’re understaffed. It was an impossible task to begin with. But feeling comfortable or dodging criticism should not be our measure of success.There’s likely a place in paradise for people who tried hard, but what really matters is succeeding. If that requires you to change, that’s your mission. My name is David Silverman. I’m a former Navy SEAL coauthor of Team of Teams and founder of CrossLead.At CrossLead we partner with teams and individuals to help them achieve and sustain optimum performance from small start ups to high growth unicorns, from elite hedge funds to global five thousand companies crossly offers a leading framework for scaling agile practices across the enterprise.From my experience, there’s no quick fix or silver bullet to achieving sustaining performance. The fundamentals are easy to understand the hard to do continuously, like staying in shape. It requires a level of commitment and discipline that most unwilling to make.People need to have purpose in what they’re doing. It’s not just a job. It’s not just working on technology. It’s just writing code or creating a design. You’re doing it for an end goal. Having an inspirational end goal is a important so that everyone’s excited about what they’re doing and B. having a common mission.And a common understanding allows you to make better decisions down in the trenches and within the teams.To the extent I have a superpower, it’s that I’m extremely disciplined. I eat the same thing every day. I’m very structured in what I do to be super successful in anything. You have to trick yourself that that’s possible.What I remember from rowing and I think was very much from a leadership perspective in business, it’s just almost saying like, guys, yeah, we’re going to do this. You know, we’re going to train, we’re going to think about strategy, we’re going to be about strategy as it related to tactics, just having underlying level like belief that you can do that. And enthusiasm and optimism for that is very helpful.There’s perhaps a common denominator under a lot of very, very successful organizations, and that is that they have a culture of excellence, their organizations comprised of people who have very high standards, high expectations of themselves. And that translates into a group of people who can perform in a relatively selfless way and produce extraordinary results over a long period of time.An organization must be constantly led or, if necessary, pushed uphill to what it must be stopped pushing, and it doesn’t continue or even rest in place and it rolls backwards. This podcast is for people that are on the same journey of constant, never ending improvement.In each episode, I meet with leaders from special operations, business and academia who share their personal experiences on leading in both good times and bad. We’re going to explore the entire set of capabilities that makes teams elite, building trust and aligning a team to a common purpose. How to build shared consciousness to rapidly increase the rate of learning. And finally, how to empower your talent to solve problems and maximize opportunities at speed. The CrossLead podcast is coming soon. So subscribe on Apple, Spotify or your favorite podcast app.

In this special episode we are joined by Pim de Morree - one half of Employee Experience royalty Corporate Rebels. Pim and co-founder Joost Minnaar ditched their frustrating office jobs to embark on a journey as a couple of rebels visiting pioneers who are changing the status quo of workplaces. Today, we learn what they discovered. We talk about organisational design, their famous bucket list, the origins of the brand, and more. Plus: all about mushroom management and why it fails.  Episode Notes:  Pim de Morree and Joost Minnaar founded the Corporate Rebels blog in 2016, to share their thoughts and findings from visiting workplaces around the world that inspired them. Since then the brand has expanded to include the Corporate Rebels Academy, presentations & workshops, the Corporate Rebels book, and more.  Books mentioned:  “Corporate Rebels: Make Work More Fun” (2020) by Pim de Morree and Joost Minnaar “Maverick: The Success Story Behind the World's Most Unusual Workplace” (1993) by Ricardo Semler  “Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders” (2013) by L. David Marquet “Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World” (2015) by General Stanley McChrystal “Reinventing Organizations: A Guide to Creating Organizations Inspired by the Next Stage in Human Consciousness” (2014) by Frederick Laloux

Dan and Pia speak to Rob Metcalfe – a former commando now leadership consultant and team coach – about significant performance challenges, how groups of people need to work proactively together to solve them, and how important social capital can be in fostering team effectiveness.Links The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High-Performance Organization Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World Squadify

Featuring Craig Hopkins, CIO at the City of San Antonio Connect w/ Craig: LinkedIn , Twitter  Nagarro Public Sector - Diamond Sponsor And a huge thank you to Nagarro Public Sector. This live podcast would not be possible without the support and love of Nagarro. Nagarro Public Sector excels at helping senior technology leaders in digital disruption from Cloud, AI, Big Data, and digital product engineering to system integration work across platforms. To learn more about Nagarro, check out nagarro.com. Sponsor: The TechTables Live Podcast Tour Join us for small, intimate live podcast conversations across the U.S. Check out https://www.techtables.com/ for the latest Live Podcast Tour stops. Show Notes: Servant leadership is a key tenet of Craig's leadership style, and we chat about where that motivation to be a servant leader comes from and why. Warren Buffett said, "Much of what you become in life depends on whom you choose to admire and copy." We talk about who Craig chose to admire and why. We talk about leading up when you're not in charge. Advice for leaders and aspiring leaders in today's rapidly changing work environment. Timeless wisdom from Craig. ---------------------- Want to dive deeper? Check out my episode on TechTables - https://www.techtables.com/ And if you're a CIO or technology leader interested in coming on TechTables, shoot me an email at joe@techtables.com Thank you for supporting Levity Media LLC ❤️, a small business growing private and public sector technology communities through fun and engaging conversations with top technology leaders. Learn more about Joe Toste (me) at https://www.techtables.com/about/ See what episodes I'm creating at https://www.techtables.com/

In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with General Stanley McChrystal and Chris Fussell about the radicalization of the far Right under Trump. They discuss the events of January 6, 2021, the behavior of the Capitol police, the history of white supremacy in the US, the effect of banning extremists from social media, the logic of insurgency, the consequence of public lies, what should happen to Trump and his enablers, and other topics. Stanley McChrystal retired from the US Army as a four-star general after more than 34 years of service. In his last assignment, he was the commander of all American and coalition forces in Afghanistan. He has written several books including a memoir titled My Share of the Task, which was a New York Times bestseller. Stanley is a senior fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, and he is the founder of the McChrystal Group leadership institute. Chris Fussell is a Partner at the McChrystal Group and the co-author (with Stanley McChrystal) of Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, which was also a New York Times bestseller. Chris was a commissioned naval officer and he spent 15 years in the Navy SEALs in various points around the globe. He served as the aide-de-camp to General McChrystal during his final year commanding the joint special operations task force fighting Al Qaeda. Chris is on the board of directors of the Navy SEAL Foundation and is a lifetime member of The Council on Foreign Relations. Chris also teaches at the Jackson Institute at Yale University. Together, Stanley and Chris host No Turning Back—a podcast that explores the future of leadership and teams with the world’s most consequential leaders. Website: www.McChrystalGroup.com Twitter: @McChrystalGroup, @StanMcChrystal, @FussellChris

Today's guest is Chris Fussell, President of McChrystal Group, a consultancy that helps organizations tap into the potential of their people to better compete in a complex and interconnected business environment. Chris is the author of the 2015 New York Times bestseller, Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World as well as 2017 Wall Street Journal bestseller, One Mission: How Leaders Build a Team of Teams. He joined McChrystal Group as a Partner in 2012. Prior to that, Chris served 15 years in the Navy on US Navy SEAL Teams leading SEAL elements in combat zones around the globe. Chris lives with his family in the DC area - Welcome to the show Chris!

On today’s Tank Talk! We welcome our guestDevon Wright, General Manager at Yelp! In San Francisco & former Co-Founder & CEO of Turnstyle Solutions.This talk is a special one for me personally as I owe a lot of my entrepreneurial and venture investing career to Devon. Not only was Devon the first person I wrote my initial angel check into back in 2012 to help start Turnstyle before it was even a company, but Devon has become one of my closest friends and supporters to push me to leave my cushy job on wall st and start my own venture fund. I could go on and on, but you will hear more about that and more on the show.On today's Talk, we ask Devon about the humble beginnings of starting Turnstyle in 2012 along with my initial capital investment that in hindsight was truly based on a ridiculous idea. We also dig into what it was like trying to find a Venture Fund let alone one to pitch to in Toronto during the first few years of the company. We learn how Devon found a way to beg, borrow and hustle his way through the early years at Turnstyle with limited capital and supporters. Finally, we dig into Devon's journey building Turnstyle into a profitable 40 person company with some amazing talent around him even after all the VC funds turned him down and why he decided to eventually sell to Yelp in 2017. Devon's entrepreneurial journey is one of hustle, persistence and the desire to prove others wrong in the face of adversity.Books Mentioned In The Show:-Loonshots - How to Nurture the Crazy Ideas that Win Wars - by Safi Bahcall- Brick by Brick - How Lego Rewrote The Rules Of Innovation - By David C. Robertson-The Perfect Store - Ebay’s Story - By Adam Cohen-Teams of Teams - New Rules of Engagement for Complex Worlds - By Gen. Stanley McChrystalDevon’s words of Inspiration “Be fair and be generous to everyone on your team when it comes to equity. It is really easy to get sucked into the capital side of your balance sheet. But don’t forget your role as an employee. And how important those people are to your success every day. Do what you can to give your employees ownership of the company. To make sure they win from the upside of your success. “You can follow Matt Cohen and Tank Talks here! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit tanktalks.substack.com

Our first ever Dispatches checks-in with Chris Fussell--former U.S. Navy SEAL, best-selling author and the president of McChrystal Group. Chris is the co-author of Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World. He joined us for a longer conversation in Episode 50 of Angry Americans--one of our most compelling episodes yet. One month after that conversation, our war against the virus is now fully expanded across America. And Chris is back to give us his update on how the battlefield is evolving, grade the leadership of President Trump and Governor Cuomo, share how you can better prepare your family in the face of the latest threats, and weigh-in on the controversial firing of Captain Bret Crozier--the Navy Commander who spoke up to defend his crew of the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier.  The Dispatches is powered by Righteous Media. See video of this conversation with Chris Fussell and a range of music, political, business and media players from Chuck D to Jeffrey Wright to Medal of Honor Recipient Flo Groberg to Sarah Jessica Parker to Stephen Colbert to Meghan McCain to Mayor Pete Buttigieg on the Righteous Media YouTube page. It's political, social and industry diversity like no other show in America.  Righteous Media is your trusted, independent source for news, politics, culture and inspiration. It's a smart, fun and no-BS perspective like nowhere else in the media.  Join us for exclusive Righteous Media events and activities by becoming a member of the Angry Americans Patreon community. You'll get unique access to our amazing guests, our dynamic host, merch discounts, and exclusive content. Angry Americans and The Dispatches are possible thanks to our Patreon supporters. Find us on social and go deeper:  Twitter: https://twitter.com/AngryAmericans Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/angryamericansus Instagram: http://instagram.com/angryamericansUSA And YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/RighteousMedia Watch the full interview https://youtu.be/QHzm4dklwLA Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with General Stanley McChrystal and Chris Fussell about the Covid-19 pandemic. They discuss the nature of the ongoing crisis, the threat of a breakdown in social order, the problem of misinformation, the prospects of a nationwide lockdown, the trade off between personal freedom and safety, the threat of tyranny, the concerns about the global supply chain, concerns about the price of oil, safeguarding the 2020 Presidential election, and other topics. Stanley McChrystal retired from the US Army as a four-star general after more than 34 years of service. In his last assignment, he was the commander of all American and coalition forces in Afghanistan. He has written several books including a memoir titled My Share of the Task, which was a New York Times bestseller. Stanley is a senior fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, and he is the founder of the McChrystal Group leadership institute. Twitter: @StanMcChrystal Chris Fussell is a Partner at the McChrystal Group and the co-author (with Stanley McChrystal) of Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, which was also a New York Times bestseller. Chris was a commissioned naval officer and he spent 15 years in the Navy SEALs in various points around the globe. He served as the aide-de-camp to General McChrystal during his final year commanding the joint special operations task force fighting Al Qaeda. Chris is on the board of directors of the Navy SEAL Foundation and is a lifetime member of The Council on Foreign Relations. Chris also teaches at the Jackson Institute at Yale University. Twitter: @FussellChris Website: www.McChrystalGroup.com Twitter: @McChrystalGroup

Truth You Can Act On: Drive Engagement By Connecting: When sending out surveys, talk to your employees first to get their input on what questions regarding engagement matter the most. Set aside time each week and commit to organic conversations with staff - innovation cannot exist without an engaged workforce. Establish Core Values: If your employees all aren't on the same page, consistent results will become impossible. Engagement stems from being aware of expectations and having the tools to deliver upon those goals. Let Transparency Be Your Friend: It's challenging to convince workers to invest in short-term goals when the big picture of what success looks like hasn't been conveyed. Be as transparent as possible during meetings and trainings to foster a smarter workforce and increase buy-in from employees. Mind the Accountability Gap: A disengaged manager can be just as destructive to your company culture as a micro-manager. Consistently assess the proper balance between employee accountability and freedom. Schedule conversations to keep managers on track in keeping employees connected. Full Shownotes: https://gutplusscience.com/tim-beatty/ Book Recommendation: Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World by General Stanley McChrystal Sponsors: Custom Concrete - Custom Concrete has been creating foundations for the finest homes, commercial buildings and industrial facilities throughout Central Indiana since 1969. Builders, contractors, and homeowners rely on our expertise because so much depends on getting it right. Our knowledge and control of all aspects of the job, from excavation to waterproofing to backfill, means that extra value is built into every project. Codes don't drive our business, excellence does. PurpleInk - Purple Ink's customized HR services will help you make your workspace JoyPowered. Whether you're looking for help with recruiting, compliance, or leadership training, they listen to what you need and tailor their solutions to you.

In this episode, we are joined by Greg Satell, an entrepreneur, author, speaker, and innovation advisor. Greg has been published in The Harvard Business Review, Forbes, Fast Company Inc., The Times of London, and Business Insider, and has just published his first book, Mapping Innovation. Previously, Greg spent 15 years in media businesses in Eastern Europe - from Poland to Moscow to Kiev and from small business journals to large news organizations and lifestyle brands. His work as an innovation advisor spans from Fortune 500 companies, to mid-size firms, and startups. What was Covered Greg's approach to mapping innovation, what he calls a “playbook for navigating a disruptive age” How organisations can no longer just look to their internal capabilities and assets to solve their most important problems but need to leverage external platforms in order to extend those internal capabilities How companies like Eli Lilly and Experian used new approaches to problem solving that involved the ecosystems of talent and technology which are key to sustaining innovation in today's world of work Key Takeaways and Learnings Looking at innovation as an important problem which requires a novel solution – in the end a line manager is less interested in whether an innovation is sustaining or disruptive but if it answers the perennial question of, “What the hell do I do next?” How power is moving from the top of the heap to the center of a network which means the indispensable partners are the dominant players Why managing connections to external ecosystems of talent is today's essential management skill as competitive advantage switches from being the sum of all efficiencies to the sum of all connections Links and Resources Mentioned in This Podcast Greg Satell's blog DigitalTonto.com Buy Greg's book Mapping Innovation: A Playbook for Navigating a Disruptive Age Download first chapter of the book HERE Get in touch with Greg on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, a book by General Stanley McChrystal Innovation Ecosystem Episode 050: Hacking Flow: How to Make Outperformance a Habit with Steven Kotler

General Stanley McChrystal (@StanMcChrystal) talks about more than 34 years of service in the US Army and his book Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World. The Cheat Sheet: See leadership from a special forces perspective. Understand why flexibility and adaptability are the cure for an unpredictable landscape -- in contrast to a system that values strict adherence to rules that limit rather than guide best practices. Learn techniques for ways we can build flexibility in ourselves. Find out why relationships are the key to success of any organization -- military or otherwise. Discover how we can develop relationships and networks to improve our own organizations. And so much more... Avoid trips to the post office with Stamps.com -- The Art of Charm listeners get a postal scale and $55 of postage for free here! Does your business have an Internet presence? Now save a whopping 50% on new webhosting packages here with HostGator by using coupon code CHARM! Find out more about the team who makes The Art of Charm podcast here! Show notes at http://theartofcharm.com/podcast-episodes/general-stanley-mcchrystal-new-rules-engagement-episode-573/ HELP US SPREAD THE WORD! If you dig the show, please subscribe in iTunes and write us a review! This is what helps us stand out from the crowd and help people find the credible advice they need. Review the show in iTunes! We rely on it! http://www.theartofcharm.com/mobilereview Stay Charming!

David Silverman is the guest on today's episode. David is a retired US Navy SEAL officer and the co-author of Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement in a Complex World. David's co-author on that book is none other than four-star General Stanley McChrystal. General McChrystal wrote one of my favorite books on leadership and on reinventing […]