WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:07.920 Okay, so today I want to take a minute and share with you a little on moving to Prime. 2 00:00:07.920 --> 00:00:09.760 So what is the definition of Prime? 3 00:00:09.760 --> 00:00:14.560 Prime is that you leave behind a legacy that can thrive without the founder. 4 00:00:14.560 --> 00:00:19.040 So if I took you as the founder out of the picture, will the business thrive? 5 00:00:19.040 --> 00:00:22.600 I'm not saying we're going to take you out, we're just saying if we took you out, right? 6 00:00:22.600 --> 00:00:26.240 So if it was necessary for you, so it gives you options. 7 00:00:26.240 --> 00:00:29.240 So your objective here is to set your organization. 8 00:00:29.240 --> 00:00:34.480 So if you had me asked us that question, say, of Brilliant two, three years ago, you took 9 00:00:34.480 --> 00:00:36.960 Graham out of the picture, there was nothing left. 10 00:00:36.960 --> 00:00:41.280 You know, I mean, the whole thing weighed and hung on his shoulders. 11 00:00:41.280 --> 00:00:43.400 More and more that's moved away. 12 00:00:43.400 --> 00:00:45.520 Graham does much less of the training. 13 00:00:45.520 --> 00:00:53.520 He supports us, of course, the School of Leadership I run together, you know, he's involved for 14 00:00:53.520 --> 00:00:59.600 sure and he's part of the training, but less and less we've been moving him so that the 15 00:00:59.600 --> 00:01:00.600 founder wouldn't be critical. 16 00:01:00.600 --> 00:01:06.120 Now, he'll be involved for a long time, but we have to move that trust from the founder 17 00:01:06.120 --> 00:01:10.760 to a team so that that transfer of trust needs to take place. 18 00:01:10.760 --> 00:01:16.040 So it's not like, well, I can only do make a decision if I speak to, you know, the CEO, 19 00:01:16.040 --> 00:01:19.280 if I can speak to the leader, if I can speak to the founder, if that's going on in your 20 00:01:19.280 --> 00:01:23.360 organization, definitely a sign that you've got some work to do. 21 00:01:23.360 --> 00:01:24.360 So what are we talking about? 22 00:01:24.360 --> 00:01:26.800 Here's a visual for those of you who like graphics. 23 00:01:26.800 --> 00:01:31.440 What we're saying is when you had the idea, there was some initial resistance. 24 00:01:31.440 --> 00:01:33.520 That's what the little resistance signal is there. 25 00:01:33.520 --> 00:01:37.240 There was some resistance to start, get the idea started, right? 26 00:01:37.240 --> 00:01:42.400 So the Lord gave you an idea or you got an idea or you had a plan and you started your 27 00:01:42.400 --> 00:01:44.160 plan. 28 00:01:44.160 --> 00:01:51.360 And as you go and grow up into some sort of success, then what happens is there's another 29 00:01:51.360 --> 00:01:52.360 resistance. 30 00:01:52.360 --> 00:01:56.480 Going from success to prime is actually quite tough. 31 00:01:56.480 --> 00:01:57.880 Why? 32 00:01:57.880 --> 00:02:02.120 Because when think of when you started, when you started your company, when you started 33 00:02:02.120 --> 00:02:05.600 your organization, you did everything. 34 00:02:05.600 --> 00:02:09.840 Then as you started to grow, you got a bunch of generalists who are all just doing whatever 35 00:02:09.840 --> 00:02:10.840 it takes. 36 00:02:10.840 --> 00:02:13.120 And so everybody was involved in everything. 37 00:02:13.120 --> 00:02:16.280 People loved it because they felt like they were part of everything. 38 00:02:16.280 --> 00:02:18.800 It was small enough for everyone to know everything. 39 00:02:18.800 --> 00:02:22.560 But then to go from success to prime, now we have to get specialists. 40 00:02:22.560 --> 00:02:24.860 We have to get people in their lane. 41 00:02:24.860 --> 00:02:28.000 And so that's a whole different leadership structure. 42 00:02:28.000 --> 00:02:33.680 That's a whole different growth for you as a leader to move your organization to prime. 43 00:02:33.680 --> 00:02:39.520 So yeah, we can get you to success, but then taking you to prime is the real challenge. 44 00:02:39.520 --> 00:02:40.520 So let's go through. 45 00:02:40.520 --> 00:02:41.760 So what is, what are we talking about? 46 00:02:41.760 --> 00:02:47.840 So think about as complexity increases in your organization, what happens to the speed? 47 00:02:47.880 --> 00:02:48.880 The speed plummets. 48 00:02:48.880 --> 00:02:49.880 Right? 49 00:02:49.880 --> 00:02:50.880 Why? 50 00:02:50.880 --> 00:02:57.360 Because with complexity, as we often say, you know, the mist in your mind becomes the 51 00:02:57.360 --> 00:02:59.480 fog in the organization. 52 00:02:59.480 --> 00:03:05.240 So what happens here is that in that, when you're not clear because of complexity and 53 00:03:05.240 --> 00:03:09.760 as the organization develops, what happens to you as the leader, as the founder, you 54 00:03:09.760 --> 00:03:15.160 often end up doing aspects of the business you don't love doing. 55 00:03:15.160 --> 00:03:17.960 You end up administrating your own business. 56 00:03:17.960 --> 00:03:21.360 And you know, Dan Martell talks a lot about end up being the administrator of your own 57 00:03:21.360 --> 00:03:25.880 business, hating what, what, you know, all the good stuff was given away to other people. 58 00:03:25.880 --> 00:03:30.640 But what happens with, so often we give up also, so when we go from, you know, something 59 00:03:30.640 --> 00:03:35.000 that's simple to complex, what happens is as the thing gets more complex, what's our 60 00:03:35.000 --> 00:03:36.640 first normal reaction? 61 00:03:36.640 --> 00:03:41.840 To control it, putting more controls, more forms to check, more checks and balances, 62 00:03:41.840 --> 00:03:45.120 more standup meetings, more this, more that, more the next thing. 63 00:03:45.120 --> 00:03:49.120 And this is the strategic mistake. 64 00:03:49.120 --> 00:03:53.640 By the way, prime has got nothing to do with how old your organization is. 65 00:03:53.640 --> 00:03:57.200 You can have a company that's 12 months old and be in prime. 66 00:03:57.200 --> 00:04:01.680 You can have a company that's 20 years old and is not in prime at all. 67 00:04:01.680 --> 00:04:03.400 It's still in that early stage. 68 00:04:03.400 --> 00:04:06.000 So we know that simplicity drives speed. 69 00:04:06.000 --> 00:04:10.520 You know, Jack Welch built the whole of GE around the three S's, self-confidence leads 70 00:04:10.520 --> 00:04:13.640 to simplicity, leads to speed. 71 00:04:13.640 --> 00:04:16.680 So because it takes a lot of confidence to be simple. 72 00:04:16.680 --> 00:04:21.600 And you know, we've said many, many times that the notion is, if you're dealing with 73 00:04:21.600 --> 00:04:25.760 complexity on anything, you're still the student. 74 00:04:25.760 --> 00:04:30.220 But when you're dealing with simplicity, you've become the master. 75 00:04:30.220 --> 00:04:36.800 Because it's simplicity, being able to make a thing simple is really, really challenging. 76 00:04:36.800 --> 00:04:44.160 Because especially if you know that the detail is nuanced, you know, reality is nuanced. 77 00:04:44.160 --> 00:04:49.720 But simplicity, it helps create and give people confidence and drive your team. 78 00:04:49.720 --> 00:04:54.120 So the thing that drives complexity is control. 79 00:04:54.120 --> 00:04:57.640 Here's a quick way to reduce some of the complexity. 80 00:04:57.640 --> 00:04:58.840 Cut your meetings in half. 81 00:05:00.000 --> 00:05:04.080 number of them and how long they last. We have a whole strategy for meetings and 82 00:05:04.080 --> 00:05:09.280 what kind of meetings actually work. Very few meetings actually produce what you 83 00:05:09.280 --> 00:05:14.400 think they produce. One way to help your team understand this, take your total 84 00:05:14.400 --> 00:05:18.840 payroll, divide it by the number and figure out what the average hour per 85 00:05:18.840 --> 00:05:24.480 person costs. Then do a quick, I did this for several companies, then just do a 86 00:05:24.480 --> 00:05:29.200 quick audit for two weeks. Ask everybody at the end of the day just to put out 87 00:05:29.200 --> 00:05:33.760 how many hours they were in meetings. Then work out what your average 88 00:05:33.760 --> 00:05:39.320 meeting is an hour, hour and a half. The average number of people is 405 or 4.5 89 00:05:39.320 --> 00:05:44.640 whatever the number is. Then you work out, hey we just spent $2,000 per 90 00:05:44.640 --> 00:05:49.980 meeting this week, this month. This is a wake-up call. Now if you really want to 91 00:05:49.980 --> 00:05:53.740 drive it home, add the simplicity part. Don't just say, let's say you sell a 92 00:05:53.740 --> 00:05:58.560 product that costs $1,000. We just use two products of 93 00:05:58.600 --> 00:06:03.880 sales every time we had a meeting. That will get their attention. Because 94 00:06:03.880 --> 00:06:07.920 suddenly we don't, because what a lot of people do, by the way, if your company, if 95 00:06:07.920 --> 00:06:11.660 your group are having a lot of meetings, that's a sign that nobody feels 96 00:06:11.660 --> 00:06:16.360 empowered. So what they're doing there is they're creating the generalist thing. We 97 00:06:16.360 --> 00:06:20.800 all have to be in on it so we can all get everybody. So we have a mindset 98 00:06:20.800 --> 00:06:26.080 of, oh we should invite everyone just in case. Let's invite the CFO and the thing 99 00:06:26.160 --> 00:06:29.960 and so and so and the next person. Because just in case they need to know. 100 00:06:29.960 --> 00:06:35.560 Don't do just in case, do just in time. So these are simple quick ways to get rid 101 00:06:35.560 --> 00:06:39.240 of some of the complexity in your organization. Okay so we want to get the 102 00:06:39.240 --> 00:06:43.360 business to prime. So let's talk about moving from success to prime. What does 103 00:06:43.360 --> 00:06:49.000 that actually look like? So let's talk about a success culture. You know when 104 00:06:49.000 --> 00:06:53.720 you've just hit that success, everybody's working flat-out, usually crazy hours. 105 00:06:53.800 --> 00:06:58.640 It's unsustainable effort. When you're coming out of that startup mode and 106 00:06:58.640 --> 00:07:01.600 you're making your first few million dollars and the company's starting to 107 00:07:01.600 --> 00:07:05.560 show a profit and it's starting to grow, you do unsustainable things. That's how 108 00:07:05.560 --> 00:07:10.440 you learn. And by the way, that's normal. You know I'm thinking of Airbnb. You know 109 00:07:10.440 --> 00:07:16.160 Airbnb, when they tried to launch their first thing in New York or 110 00:07:16.160 --> 00:07:21.280 whatever it was and nobody was signing up, you may remember that the CEO and I 111 00:07:21.320 --> 00:07:24.440 think the CFO happened to be a photographer, actually went to the 112 00:07:24.440 --> 00:07:29.320 person's house, took photographs and got it rented and went through. Now is it 113 00:07:29.320 --> 00:07:33.200 sustainable for the CEO and CFO to go to everybody's house and take photos? Of 114 00:07:33.200 --> 00:07:38.920 course not. But they learned very quickly that great photos was the key to that 115 00:07:38.920 --> 00:07:43.440 success of that business. So doing the unsustainable thing is part of the 116 00:07:43.440 --> 00:07:48.960 learning. But then you have growing complexity, more customers, especially 117 00:07:49.000 --> 00:07:54.280 in those early stages where you haven't quite packaged up your products 118 00:07:54.280 --> 00:07:58.240 enough and so you just want the business. So you do all these little 119 00:07:58.240 --> 00:08:03.720 variants of the product which gets very complex. And you get role confusion. 120 00:08:03.720 --> 00:08:07.440 People are stepping over each other because not clearly defined roles. 121 00:08:07.440 --> 00:08:11.920 Because we're coming out of generalist mode, in success mode, and trying to move 122 00:08:11.920 --> 00:08:16.160 now into prime. There's discouragement. You know it's not like it used to be. 123 00:08:16.240 --> 00:08:19.800 There's all these new people. I don't know what's going on. I'm just 124 00:08:19.800 --> 00:08:23.320 looking for the good old days when we all knew what was happening. You've all 125 00:08:23.320 --> 00:08:29.280 heard this before. And so I've seen even founders lose interest at 126 00:08:29.280 --> 00:08:33.360 this point or motivation. I didn't sign up for this. This is complex. I don't want 127 00:08:33.360 --> 00:08:37.640 to do this anymore. I can do this in a simpler way. I'm gonna either hand this 128 00:08:37.640 --> 00:08:42.720 off to someone else or we have to rethink everything. So as we're 129 00:08:42.720 --> 00:08:48.160 going through all of that, let's look at what prime leadership looks like. So I 130 00:08:48.160 --> 00:08:54.520 want to introduce the idea of a new paradigm for leadership with somebody 131 00:08:54.520 --> 00:08:59.400 being the conductor of the orchestra. Anybody's familiar with Ben Zander? By 132 00:08:59.400 --> 00:09:02.720 the way I'll try to give us many direct references to where some of these best 133 00:09:02.720 --> 00:09:06.040 practices are coming from. So you can look him up. There's a fantastic book 134 00:09:06.040 --> 00:09:12.480 that Ben and his wife wrote called The Art of Possibility. And in The Art of 135 00:09:12.560 --> 00:09:18.120 Possibility they talk through this idea of a leader being a conductor. And Ben 136 00:09:18.120 --> 00:09:23.680 tells a fantastic story when he says, you know, he was about 45 years old 137 00:09:23.680 --> 00:09:30.640 and he had an epiphany. And the epiphany was, hey I'm the only musician who 138 00:09:30.640 --> 00:09:35.720 doesn't make a sound. And if you think that's it, you know, conductors are often 139 00:09:35.720 --> 00:09:41.480 some of the most talented musicians, right? So what's the job? The job of the 140 00:09:41.520 --> 00:09:46.800 conductor is to make sure every musician is in the right seat. Or you can use a 141 00:09:46.800 --> 00:09:51.160 bus analogy. You're the bus driver but is everybody in the right seat on the bus? 142 00:09:51.160 --> 00:09:55.160 And when you're first getting going, people are used to standing on the bus, 143 00:09:55.160 --> 00:09:59.160 walking around, sitting random places wherever they needed. But now can you 144 00:09:59.160 --> 00:10:02.160 assign somebody? 145 00:10:00.000 --> 00:10:05.680 their right seat or in the go back to the musician so yes it's nice that you can play the the violin 146 00:10:05.680 --> 00:10:12.480 and the oboe and the whatever but now i need you to be the first violinist now i need you to be 147 00:10:12.480 --> 00:10:19.520 and now we assign everybody their right seat so the next thing is they all have the same sheet 148 00:10:19.520 --> 00:10:25.840 of music for very obvious reasons can you imagine the cacophony of sound if even one note was out 149 00:10:25.840 --> 00:10:30.800 or somebody accidentally you know was on the wrong page so getting them all on the same sheet of 150 00:10:30.800 --> 00:10:37.440 music and with and they know when it's their turn to play another analogy that helped me understand 151 00:10:37.440 --> 00:10:43.440 this if any of you have ever watched a bunch of five-year-olds play soccer right what happens 152 00:10:44.000 --> 00:10:48.720 it's a ball of dust that moves around the field all that happens is there's one ball and all of 153 00:10:48.720 --> 00:10:52.720 them are on the ball and then this ball of dust sort of just moves around and every now and again 154 00:10:52.720 --> 00:10:59.040 somebody scores something zero strategy right but when you watch a professional soccer team what is 155 00:10:59.040 --> 00:11:04.640 it well one person kicks the ball to another everybody knows the play everybody knows what 156 00:11:04.640 --> 00:11:10.160 we're trying to do now wouldn't it be weird in a professional team if somebody kicked the ball to 157 00:11:10.160 --> 00:11:16.480 their to somebody else and um and then ran up to that person to help them kick the ball because 158 00:11:16.480 --> 00:11:21.600 they didn't trust them see if you don't trust the competence of your team members that's what they 159 00:11:21.600 --> 00:11:26.560 will do they can't hand it off because there's no actual trust or they're not willing to let them 160 00:11:26.560 --> 00:11:31.520 learn and so founders who say i'm the only one who can do this that's what they're doing they 161 00:11:31.520 --> 00:11:36.240 kick the ball to you sort of handing it off but then they they're checking every little thing 162 00:11:36.240 --> 00:11:42.720 and then helping them kick and at some point you have to all be on the same page we know what the 163 00:11:42.720 --> 00:11:47.840 play is we're going to trust each other even if we make mistakes and we know when it's our turn to 164 00:11:47.840 --> 00:11:52.480 play and so here is the bottom line for this style of leadership it's so beautifully 165 00:11:53.600 --> 00:12:01.200 empowering because you become powerful when you make others powerful as a leader you become 166 00:12:01.200 --> 00:12:08.320 powerful by making your team members powerful what if you made members of your team the hero of a 167 00:12:08.320 --> 00:12:14.960 story and you know robin alluded to earlier one of the best practices i know of if i took over a 168 00:12:14.960 --> 00:12:20.560 business that's the first thing i install is one hour training once and once a week no exceptions 169 00:12:20.560 --> 00:12:26.800 if you absolutely have to miss it then you've got 48 hours to catch up on the replay it's 100 170 00:12:26.800 --> 00:12:33.680 required and and and if you because you need one place in which you can have the controls for 171 00:12:33.680 --> 00:12:40.320 shifting culture culture in your business is gonna it's like turning the the you know turning it up 172 00:12:40.320 --> 00:12:45.840 one degree at a time and when you're turning up a block of ice one degree at a time you can go from 173 00:12:45.840 --> 00:12:51.120 you know 15 degrees to 20 degrees and so what we've done five weeks of training nothing's happened 174 00:12:51.120 --> 00:12:56.880 that's not how leadership works leadership works you just keep going one day the ice automatically 175 00:12:56.880 --> 00:13:02.000 melts why because you hit 32 and then you keep going and then it turns to steam what magic did 176 00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:07.440 you do nothing i just kept turning it up one degree and so these people who come in and do 177 00:13:07.440 --> 00:13:11.920 oh we did a three-day off-site will do nothing for your culture may help you get something 178 00:13:11.920 --> 00:13:19.200 organized but you'll do nothing for culture because culture is slow learning great learning 179 00:13:19.200 --> 00:13:26.000 is slow learning when it comes to culture um one way of thinking of this is so if i go to the gym 180 00:13:26.000 --> 00:13:32.560 and i've been to the gym six times already so where's the results then same thing right it's 181 00:13:32.560 --> 00:13:37.920 exactly the same thing you're training the muscle memory of your team you're training the 182 00:13:37.920 --> 00:13:46.000 individuals so if you have moments where you make members powerful if you have moments where you 183 00:13:46.000 --> 00:13:52.320 make somebody in your team the hero of the story it's game over for them and they will love you 184 00:13:52.320 --> 00:13:59.120 forever that moment when you get recognized so any team that i've led it works like this 185 00:14:00.080 --> 00:14:05.280 let's say dear and i working together and dear royally screws up on something and i come to 186 00:14:05.280 --> 00:14:13.120 you guys and i say we the team made a mistake we apologize if dear pulls off something genius i 187 00:14:13.120 --> 00:14:19.760 say let me tell you what a genius deer is um collins referred to this as the window and the 188 00:14:19.760 --> 00:14:24.400 mirror when things go bad you look in the mirror when things go great you look out the window and 189 00:14:24.400 --> 00:14:31.200 you identify the key person you want to turn into a hero this is the foundation of how people 190 00:14:31.200 --> 00:14:39.200 feel seen and heard people need to know what i do matters here my life i am making a contribution 191 00:14:39.200 --> 00:14:45.200 here you say well we do you know we do boring stuff we don't do like you know cool stuff that 192 00:14:45.200 --> 00:14:51.600 non-profits do we do some pretty boring stuff it doesn't matter what you do it's that it's who you 193 00:14:51.600 --> 00:14:58.400 do it with and are you seen are you received and are you celebrated that's the bottom line 194 00:14:58.400 --> 00:14:59.760 and this gives us an opportunity 195 00:15:00.000 --> 00:15:03.000 at a whole new level of culture as leaders. 196 00:15:03.880 --> 00:15:06.280 You know, we want this thing for them. 197 00:15:06.280 --> 00:15:07.600 If you leave us, 198 00:15:07.600 --> 00:15:10.720 we want you to be the smartest person in the room. 199 00:15:10.720 --> 00:15:12.720 We paid for this Edge course 200 00:15:12.720 --> 00:15:16.120 so that you can be trained with the best leadership 201 00:15:16.120 --> 00:15:17.880 stuff from around the world. 202 00:15:17.880 --> 00:15:19.440 So that if you leave us, 203 00:15:19.440 --> 00:15:21.960 we want you to be the smartest person in the room. 204 00:15:21.960 --> 00:15:23.880 You say, well, why would we do that? 205 00:15:23.880 --> 00:15:25.000 You know, I had one person said, 206 00:15:25.000 --> 00:15:28.560 hey, what if we do all this and then they all leave? 207 00:15:28.640 --> 00:15:29.680 And the answer to that is, 208 00:15:29.680 --> 00:15:31.880 what if you don't do it and they will stay? 209 00:15:34.320 --> 00:15:35.840 Just asking. 210 00:15:35.840 --> 00:15:38.200 So here's the thing, do it anyway. 211 00:15:38.200 --> 00:15:40.880 Invest in people anyway. 212 00:15:40.880 --> 00:15:42.880 And then, you know, 213 00:15:42.880 --> 00:15:45.960 I know a story of an organization 214 00:15:45.960 --> 00:15:48.960 where the leader got up, he had a staff of 300, 215 00:15:48.960 --> 00:15:50.280 and he said to them, 216 00:15:50.280 --> 00:15:53.920 hey, we really liked you when we hired you. 217 00:15:53.920 --> 00:15:55.360 We like you still. 218 00:15:55.360 --> 00:15:58.160 If you feel there's a better job out there 219 00:15:58.760 --> 00:15:59.840 for you, come and talk to us. 220 00:15:59.840 --> 00:16:02.760 And if we have contacts, we'll help you get that job. 221 00:16:05.520 --> 00:16:08.600 By the way, if it doesn't work out, come back to us. 222 00:16:08.600 --> 00:16:10.600 We liked you when you left, 223 00:16:10.600 --> 00:16:12.720 we'll like you when you come back. 224 00:16:12.720 --> 00:16:14.720 And we know you've learned more lessons. 225 00:16:15.720 --> 00:16:18.200 That is just huge. 226 00:16:18.200 --> 00:16:22.840 That is the, this is the game changing culture 227 00:16:22.840 --> 00:16:27.840 that empowers you to attract people above your pay grade. 228 00:16:28.000 --> 00:16:30.880 People will leave more secure businesses, 229 00:16:30.880 --> 00:16:34.640 take less money for a culture like this. 230 00:16:34.640 --> 00:16:36.800 And when you're going through the interview process, 231 00:16:36.800 --> 00:16:38.720 and we have a whole system on how to do that 232 00:16:38.720 --> 00:16:42.960 based off SpaceX's training, hiring program. 233 00:16:42.960 --> 00:16:44.080 When you're going through that 234 00:16:44.080 --> 00:16:46.960 and you're describing this kind of culture, 235 00:16:46.960 --> 00:16:50.280 it's people, you know, like, what? 236 00:16:50.280 --> 00:16:51.720 That actually exists. 237 00:16:52.640 --> 00:16:53.640 You know, on two occasions, 238 00:16:53.640 --> 00:16:57.040 we've had people cry in the interview process 239 00:16:57.080 --> 00:16:59.400 because they just, it's like, 240 00:16:59.400 --> 00:17:02.120 I felt so seen even in the interview. 241 00:17:03.360 --> 00:17:06.280 Okay, so creating a work culture 242 00:17:06.280 --> 00:17:09.400 that people love to be a part of. 243 00:17:09.400 --> 00:17:11.119 You know, as you're going through this, 244 00:17:11.119 --> 00:17:12.680 this is so easy to do. 245 00:17:12.680 --> 00:17:16.000 So what does that mean for you as a leader? 246 00:17:16.000 --> 00:17:18.760 That means you're constantly looking 247 00:17:18.760 --> 00:17:21.800 for training opportunities all the time, 248 00:17:21.800 --> 00:17:23.160 because you're the conductor. 249 00:17:23.160 --> 00:17:26.160 You have to point to people, you're on. 250 00:17:26.200 --> 00:17:28.280 And when somebody makes a suggestion, 251 00:17:28.280 --> 00:17:30.600 you know, Ben Zander tells the story 252 00:17:30.600 --> 00:17:32.760 of somebody who came to him, 253 00:17:32.760 --> 00:17:33.960 one of the musicians said, 254 00:17:33.960 --> 00:17:35.760 why don't we do this piece like this? 255 00:17:35.760 --> 00:17:38.040 You know, it's all classical music, of course. 256 00:17:38.040 --> 00:17:39.720 And I think he was the conductor 257 00:17:39.720 --> 00:17:41.920 of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra. 258 00:17:41.920 --> 00:17:44.880 And he said, well, what if we did this piece like this? 259 00:17:44.880 --> 00:17:46.680 And so he said, okay, I'll think about it. 260 00:17:46.680 --> 00:17:49.880 And when they got to playing it, he did the piece. 261 00:17:49.880 --> 00:17:53.520 And she said, you did my piece, you know. 262 00:17:53.520 --> 00:17:55.400 You did my thing. 263 00:17:55.840 --> 00:17:57.680 And then of course, when they're all together, 264 00:17:57.680 --> 00:18:00.040 he gave credit to her. 265 00:18:00.040 --> 00:18:02.600 And so you did my piece. 266 00:18:02.600 --> 00:18:05.440 That's how you want your people to feel. 267 00:18:05.440 --> 00:18:06.840 You did my piece. 268 00:18:06.840 --> 00:18:08.680 You took my idea. 269 00:18:08.680 --> 00:18:10.800 And then make them the hero of the story. 270 00:18:10.800 --> 00:18:14.960 Let me ask you, will they be more prone now 271 00:18:14.960 --> 00:18:17.080 to innovate more or less? 272 00:18:17.080 --> 00:18:18.480 Obviously more. 273 00:18:18.480 --> 00:18:22.280 When one of those emotional moments happen, 274 00:18:22.280 --> 00:18:25.040 something beautiful happens to the culture. 275 00:18:25.680 --> 00:18:28.720 And when other team members seeing, you know, 276 00:18:28.720 --> 00:18:30.600 other people being made the hero of the story, 277 00:18:30.600 --> 00:18:32.400 in a very, you know, I'm not talking, 278 00:18:32.400 --> 00:18:35.000 you know I'm not talking in a cheesy way. 279 00:18:35.000 --> 00:18:36.600 Because a lot of leaders say, 280 00:18:36.600 --> 00:18:39.040 hey, I want all your ideas, tell us what you think. 281 00:18:39.040 --> 00:18:40.800 And when you tell them what you really think, 282 00:18:40.800 --> 00:18:42.040 you get your head handed to you. 283 00:18:42.040 --> 00:18:45.080 Go, that's the last time I'm doing that plan. 284 00:18:45.080 --> 00:18:47.360 So what does this mean? 285 00:18:47.360 --> 00:18:50.400 It means we create an environment 286 00:18:50.400 --> 00:18:51.920 where good people can thrive. 287 00:18:51.920 --> 00:18:54.440 Let me give you a warning about this type of leadership. 288 00:18:54.480 --> 00:18:58.840 If you take all the upside, there is some downside. 289 00:18:58.840 --> 00:19:00.760 Downside number one is, 290 00:19:02.040 --> 00:19:04.640 number one downside is, 291 00:19:04.640 --> 00:19:06.720 not everybody's gonna love this. 292 00:19:07.640 --> 00:19:09.440 There will be people in your team 293 00:19:09.440 --> 00:19:11.560 who don't wanna be growing. 294 00:19:11.560 --> 00:19:13.240 So think of it like this. 295 00:19:13.240 --> 00:19:16.720 Here's the gradient, you're on this gradient way here. 296 00:19:16.720 --> 00:19:18.720 And now you're taking this weekly training, 297 00:19:18.720 --> 00:19:21.520 you're tilting the gradient up slightly. 298 00:19:21.520 --> 00:19:23.280 Now with the training, you know, 299 00:19:23.280 --> 00:19:24.560 you're tilting it even further up. 300 00:19:24.560 --> 00:19:26.960 So the gradient, the learning curve, 301 00:19:26.960 --> 00:19:28.400 or as Elon Musk puts it, 302 00:19:28.400 --> 00:19:31.560 he who innovates the fastest wins, right? 303 00:19:31.560 --> 00:19:34.120 So as you push that gradient up, 304 00:19:34.120 --> 00:19:37.000 and you're driving a new type of culture, 305 00:19:37.000 --> 00:19:38.200 where you're teaching people 306 00:19:38.200 --> 00:19:41.000 that this is an environment that you can trust, 307 00:19:41.000 --> 00:19:41.960 that you can flourish in. 308 00:19:41.960 --> 00:19:43.640 I'm the conductor. 309 00:19:43.640 --> 00:19:45.160 You played my part. 310 00:19:45.160 --> 00:19:46.200 You played my music. 311 00:19:46.200 --> 00:19:47.440 You played my bit. 312 00:19:47.440 --> 00:19:48.400 That moment. 313 00:19:48.400 --> 00:19:49.760 But some people, 314 00:19:49.760 --> 00:19:51.840 they're gonna grow slower than the growth rate. 315 00:19:51.840 --> 00:19:53.000 I'm not saying they're not growing at all. 316 00:19:53.520 --> 00:19:54.360 I'm saying they're gonna grow slower 317 00:19:54.360 --> 00:19:55.760 than the pace and the gradient 318 00:19:55.760 --> 00:19:57.320 you've now set for your organization. 319 00:19:57.320 --> 00:19:59.280 What's gonna happen to the gap? 320 00:19:59.280 --> 00:20:00.120 Bigger. 321 00:20:00.000 --> 00:20:06.880 bigger and bigger. And so the kindest thing you can do as a leader is release those people back 322 00:20:06.880 --> 00:20:12.240 into the marketplace so they can be involved in an environment that's growing at a pace that 323 00:20:12.240 --> 00:20:17.280 suits them better. That's not because they're slow or this. It's just this culture, this 324 00:20:17.280 --> 00:20:25.120 environment is too quick. And I can tell you this is a self-sorting mechanism. You think, 325 00:20:25.120 --> 00:20:29.680 oh, well, you know, I'll try to bring everyone along. No, you won't. You'll either lower the 326 00:20:29.680 --> 00:20:35.520 gradient or those people will leave. I'm afraid that's the truth. I wish I could tell you there 327 00:20:35.520 --> 00:20:41.760 was a kind of thing. But the kindest thing you can do as a leader is to sit down with them and say, 328 00:20:41.760 --> 00:20:46.960 look, we've got 30 days. In 30 days time, we're going to get together. These are things we're 329 00:20:46.960 --> 00:20:51.120 going to measure. And if they're not there, make sure your resume is in order. That's the kindest 330 00:20:51.120 --> 00:20:56.560 thing you can do. Don't shock people from nowhere and just fire them. That is horrible. 331 00:20:57.280 --> 00:21:02.080 And also, you need people in your team to see that this is a safe place. 332 00:21:02.080 --> 00:21:10.240 OK, let's bring this in for a landing. So small changes gain massive momentum. It's one degree 333 00:21:10.240 --> 00:21:15.680 a day or one degree a week. That means you've moved the temperature up 52 degrees a year. 334 00:21:16.480 --> 00:21:22.720 That will profoundly change the culture of your organization. So people ask, 335 00:21:22.720 --> 00:21:29.200 how did we at Brilliant increase in 18 to 24 months? How did we increase the productivity 336 00:21:29.200 --> 00:21:35.920 by 500 percent with half the size team? There was no magic in that. Oh, you must have had 337 00:21:35.920 --> 00:21:38.880 extraordinary people. Look, we all have extraordinary people because we have ordinary 338 00:21:38.880 --> 00:21:44.720 people that can be trained to do extraordinary things. That is true for almost every organization. 339 00:21:45.360 --> 00:21:51.760 I said there were two things. The second thing, one, you will lose the slower growth people in 340 00:21:51.760 --> 00:21:59.200 your organization. The second thing that will happen over time is that the momentum and speed 341 00:21:59.200 --> 00:22:04.880 of the organization will demand more from your leadership because it means you're going to have 342 00:22:04.880 --> 00:22:11.520 to give people the gift of trust, not trying to tell them to earn your trust. I spoke to a 343 00:22:12.240 --> 00:22:17.600 a CTO of a large insurance company and he said, well, I'm just not a very trusting person. 344 00:22:17.600 --> 00:22:21.440 You know, they have to earn my trust. I said what you just told me. I said, firstly, that's a bunch 345 00:22:21.440 --> 00:22:26.320 of nonsense, because what you just told me was that you never trust anyone for any reason 346 00:22:26.320 --> 00:22:32.800 whatsoever. You just came up with an excuse. Why not? Because trust, you give people the gift of 347 00:22:32.800 --> 00:22:37.760 trust and then teach them how not to break your trust by this. When you make a mistake, tell me 348 00:22:37.760 --> 00:22:43.840 first. That's how you keep my trust. Not like you can't make mistakes. Just tell me first. Own it. 349 00:22:43.840 --> 00:22:50.080 Tell me first. Be first up. Make sure good news travels fast. Bad news travels faster. That's how 350 00:22:50.080 --> 00:22:56.560 you keep my trust. So moving from success to prime means creating a team of leaders, not just a team 351 00:22:56.560 --> 00:23:04.320 with a leader. That means you up leveling your leadership ability. That means you're handing 352 00:23:04.400 --> 00:23:10.640 off things and trusting people, even if you know you could do it better. I go back to Dan Martell's 353 00:23:10.640 --> 00:23:18.800 comment. 80% done by someone else is amazing, right? So forget about the 90, 95. This will be 354 00:23:18.800 --> 00:23:26.320 dropped. It doesn't matter. It just doesn't matter. So how do we teach people visually? Here's a 355 00:23:26.320 --> 00:23:32.000 visualization that will help you think about this new paradigm. Teach people how do you bring your 356 00:23:32.000 --> 00:23:38.160 strength in balance. I'm going to use a firefighter model. So imagine firefighters. They've 357 00:23:38.160 --> 00:23:46.640 all got their hand on the net, right? Now imagine if these firefighters don't pull on the net just 358 00:23:46.640 --> 00:23:51.920 right. If there's not the right tension, this is not going to be effective, correct? 359 00:23:53.120 --> 00:23:59.280 Okay, what does that mean? That means in your organization, tension is a healthy sign of health. 360 00:24:00.160 --> 00:24:04.400 There are people who want to remove the tension. We don't want conflict. You've got to have a 361 00:24:04.400 --> 00:24:09.840 certain tension. In other words, imagine if you've got a powerful personality who walks in, 362 00:24:09.840 --> 00:24:17.360 grabs the net, and yanks the net out of everybody's hand. What happens then? And then 363 00:24:17.360 --> 00:24:21.680 the company cannot be supported. The company being the person jumping out of the fire building, 364 00:24:21.680 --> 00:24:26.800 right? So now imagine if it's all just kumbaya and we're all just standing together and we're 365 00:24:27.760 --> 00:24:33.520 all in agreement and the net's on the ground because we're all just making a lovely huddle. 366 00:24:33.520 --> 00:24:39.120 Now the net's lying on the ground and the person jumps. That's the same as no net. What does this 367 00:24:39.120 --> 00:24:48.080 practically mean? It means there's a beauty in tension. Maybe sales and marketing and finance 368 00:24:48.080 --> 00:24:53.760 and technology and community management or whatever those elements are. You're saying to 369 00:24:53.760 --> 00:24:58.480 your team members, I want you to pull on the net. Not so hard you rip it out of the other person's 370 00:24:58.480 --> 00:24:59.840 hand, but not so 371 00:25:00.000 --> 00:25:06.080 soft that there's now now there's a gap. So I need you to pull on your net. So 372 00:25:06.080 --> 00:25:11.280 this is a powerful permission to tell your team pull on your net. So 373 00:25:11.280 --> 00:25:14.000 question to you. 374 00:25:15.120 --> 00:25:21.360 Whose hands right now are on the net? You say my hands are the only ones. Okay 375 00:25:21.360 --> 00:25:24.480 that's a starting point. We need to fix that. 376 00:25:24.480 --> 00:25:27.760 That's not a team of leaders. That's a team with a leader. 377 00:25:27.760 --> 00:25:31.600 Okay so you have to now learn to lead a team of leaders. 378 00:25:31.600 --> 00:25:35.680 That's it. That's the next level up. So who in your team 379 00:25:35.680 --> 00:25:39.920 have their hands on the on the net? Are there some people you need to invite to 380 00:25:39.920 --> 00:25:43.600 let go of the net? Are there some people you need to invite 381 00:25:43.600 --> 00:25:47.120 to join and take their space on the net? And third 382 00:25:47.120 --> 00:25:50.160 question is are some of your team members need to 383 00:25:50.160 --> 00:25:54.720 be encouraged to either pull softer or pull harder? 384 00:25:55.600 --> 00:25:59.200 So how does that look? That means hey we just had a meeting and 385 00:25:59.200 --> 00:26:02.400 hey John I just want to talk to you about that for a minute. You just pulled 386 00:26:02.400 --> 00:26:04.800 the net out of everyone's hands when you pulled that off. 387 00:26:04.800 --> 00:26:07.840 When you did that no one could make a comment. 388 00:26:07.840 --> 00:26:11.760 You just did in such a forceful way there was no way to collaborate. No way 389 00:26:11.760 --> 00:26:13.600 to contribute because you just ripped that. 390 00:26:13.600 --> 00:26:17.600 Or why did you just sit there quietly the whole time? You have said well I'm 391 00:26:17.600 --> 00:26:21.520 only responsible for customer service. Listen you're the you're the pointy end 392 00:26:21.520 --> 00:26:24.800 of the spear. Customer service is the most important 393 00:26:24.800 --> 00:26:28.720 thing. And I remember coming doing product 394 00:26:28.720 --> 00:26:32.480 development with with Team Brilliant and we had talked about some of this 395 00:26:32.480 --> 00:26:36.320 and we did a presentation and I did a five or six minute presentation on the 396 00:26:36.320 --> 00:26:40.560 next product that I wanted to call which we're going to call our prime 397 00:26:40.560 --> 00:26:44.560 product. And I just teed it up very high level 398 00:26:44.560 --> 00:26:47.840 I framed it up so the team could have a conversation. 399 00:26:47.840 --> 00:26:51.200 And then our head of customer service you know the story 400 00:26:51.200 --> 00:26:56.080 she told me that was really dumb idea. Tell the president the idea is dumb. 401 00:26:56.080 --> 00:26:59.120 That that you got a good culture going when they can do that with 402 00:26:59.120 --> 00:27:03.440 she was respectful. She said customers will never understand that. 403 00:27:03.440 --> 00:27:07.360 She laid out the product it became but what was she doing there? 404 00:27:07.360 --> 00:27:12.240 She was pulling on the net respectfully. She wasn't insulting. She 405 00:27:12.240 --> 00:27:16.800 wasn't rude. So there is a way to do this and if you 406 00:27:16.800 --> 00:27:19.680 can if your meetings look like that why 407 00:27:19.680 --> 00:27:23.280 haven't I heard from you? Or when you did it you presented it so 408 00:27:23.280 --> 00:27:26.640 softly there wasn't enough tension on the net. 409 00:27:26.640 --> 00:27:31.760 So tension is a sign something healthy is happening. 410 00:27:31.760 --> 00:27:39.120 A lack of tension is a sign that something poor is happening. 411 00:27:39.120 --> 00:27:44.320 I hope that helps. Over the next you know time as we build out this all together 412 00:27:44.320 --> 00:27:47.920 we're going to build four pillars with you. Each of the trainings are going to 413 00:27:47.920 --> 00:27:51.680 be built around four pillars. Today we focused on a leadership pillar. 414 00:27:51.680 --> 00:27:54.080 We're going to talk about building culture. We're going to talk about 415 00:27:54.080 --> 00:27:57.920 building innovation and economics. What if everyone in your 416 00:27:57.920 --> 00:28:00.720 team is equipped to be a leader? What if 417 00:28:00.720 --> 00:28:04.960 everyone your team knows the working culture of how we work together 418 00:28:04.960 --> 00:28:08.240 and what and what if the you know everyone can 419 00:28:08.240 --> 00:28:11.840 innovate regardless of what they're doing. Innovation at every level of the 420 00:28:11.840 --> 00:28:15.200 organization in every category. Hey we got our 421 00:28:15.200 --> 00:28:19.280 invoices paid faster because we came up with this new automated whatever 422 00:28:19.280 --> 00:28:23.040 and what if economically what if economically 423 00:28:23.040 --> 00:28:28.400 everybody understood how what they do contributes financially to the business. 424 00:28:28.400 --> 00:28:33.040 Question to you if I woke your team up and said in the 425 00:28:33.040 --> 00:28:35.680 middle of the night and said tell me what you do 426 00:28:35.680 --> 00:28:38.800 and how that financially contributes to the organization 427 00:28:38.800 --> 00:28:42.160 can they answer that question? 428 00:28:42.560 --> 00:28:46.960 It's really important that they can. Why? Because that shows they understand 429 00:28:46.960 --> 00:28:50.800 the mission of the organization. We're going to get into getting that clarity 430 00:28:50.800 --> 00:28:55.200 and all that stuff coming up in a few weeks. We'll talk through all 431 00:28:55.200 --> 00:28:58.800 that. Well thanks for taking a moment. I hope 432 00:28:58.800 --> 00:29:02.160 you know as we're going through all of that that that was that was helpful.