Choosing Value Over Control: Unlocking High Performance in Today’s Business

0:00 The topics and opinions express in the following show are solely those of the hosts and their guests and not those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We make no recommendations or endorsements radio show, programs, services, or products mentioned on air or on our web. No liability explicit or implies shall be extended to W four CY Radio or it's employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing W FOURCY Radio. What's working on Purpose? Anyway? Each week we ponder the answer to this question. People ache for meaning and purpose at work, to contribute their talents passionately and know their lives really matter. They crave being part of an organization that inspires them and helps them grow into realizing their highest potential. Business can be such a force for good in the world, elevating humanity. In our program, we provide guidance and inspiration to help usher in this world we all want working on purpose. Now, here's your host, Doctor Relise Cortez.

1:04 Welcome back to your Working and Purpose program, which has been brought to you with passionate pride since February of twenty fifteen. Thanks for jo Median this week. Great to have you. I'm your host, doctor Relise Cortes. If we've not met before and you don't know me, I'm an organizational psychologist and a logo therapist, speaker and author. My team and I at Gusto Now help companies to enliven and fortify their operations by building a culture and leadership activated by meaning and purpose. Our mission is to help our clients create destinies and workplace or People flocked to join are intrinsically motivated to perform at their best, can grow to their floor potential, and are committed to stay and have a good deliver on the company's mission, which translates to higher profits for you, You and more at us and how can work together at gusto dashnow dot com or my personal site at Leascortes dot com Getting in today's program we have with us today. Colin O'Neill and entrepreneur, thought leader, business executive, organizational change agent, international trainer, conference speaker, author and executive coach. He's the creator of the Entity value Realization system and author of the book Take Control, Giving Up Control, The Value centered Fast tracked to organizational growth. You jointed today from San Diego, Colin A hearty welcome to working on Purpose.

2:09 Thank you to Elisee. Very welcome. When you were in San Diego, I was just there a couple of weeks ago. Love your city, love your town. So beautiful there, and I love the sour dough bread, the clam chowder and the beer. Let's just be clear about this, shall we. So that's a little bit about me. Let's talk about you. So, you know, just looking at your background and what you've gone and done in your life, it's pretty impressive and I'm envies of all the things that you've gotten to do. So let's start for our listeners and viewers who don't know you yet, they haven't read your book yet, like I have, hearing a little bit about your background and how you ultimately came to be focused on helping build agility scaling across organizations. How did that all happen? Where did it start?

2:50 And why? I am not architecture? Why not? I don't know accounting? Well, So, first of all, you know, as a as a child, I was interested in helping people in organizations I could. I used to spot things as a you know as a kid that it makes sense to me and like why is that? You know, why is that not working over there? That could be improved? So in my brain, you know, my growing up, I was always creating solutions in my head. Well, then I went to the Naval Academy and ultimately in the Marines, and so as an austar in the Marine Corps, I learned, you know a lot about leadership and that it's not always what you think it's. It's not always it's not command and control. And even though people think that that it is in the military command and control, it has changed a lot in the last fifty years since I since I joined the military, and and it's now a lot more where essentially it promotes the title of the book, take control by giving up control, and there was distributed authority has become the sort of the defecto standard in the military in the sense that say what it is that they want to achieve, and then they give their people the autonomy and the freedom, yet hold them accountable to achieve those objectives. And so as after I left

4:20 the Marine Corps and went into civilian life, I went into consulting and organizational improvement, consulting, and for years and years I brought the latest and greatest approaches to my clients, and through the years I discovered that they weren't working all that well. And it took me a while to figure out that it was because of several things. One, there was a human component missing in a lot of these frameworks, and the second was there was just too much control exerted by management when it was number one unnecessary.

5:01 Number two, people resisted the control. So from all of those experiences, I came to realize that distributed authority, empowering your employees, creating adaptive leaders that are that are empathetic, and create an environment by enriched environment within which people can operate is the ideal way to go. Sounds it's like a good place to me. I mean, that's the kind of stuff that I like to build for companies too. And I appreciate that you said so eloquently what was missing was the human element. What a concept. The organizations are powered by people. Right, right, and and the whole the whole purpose of this approach, the enterprise, the entity value realization system, ever, is to help humanity. It's basically uplifting humanity through UH creating better organizations, giving people more time to me and and letting them do their creative stuff.

6:06 Well, let's talk a little bit about it. I thought it'd be very, very elegant and ineloquent as well. It's obviously I love that you how you describe it as it is? It well, you derive it yourself, even as an elegant, holistic method that addresses the core issue space in companies today. So would you just outline it for us and then we will delve from there. Sure? So, the EVER the EVER system is two things. Basically, it's it's a graphic that shows how all of these elements tied together. And and if you like, I can pull it up in the background, believe it or not? Sure so great, let me let me just do that real quick.

6:47 That's a lovely surprise. I like being delighted. Thank you, And let me get the virtual background here. Okay, oh yes, I recognize that. Yeah. So basically, a picture's worth a thousand words. And so in this case, the idea is there's several things going on here. One is to connect strategy with execution, and by doing so, we synchronize the people that are doing the work with the people that want the work done, and in most organizations that I've consulted with over forty years, this has been a major disconnect. And so value is created in the middle. And this approach is all about value.

7:35 And it's not just it's not just a company's value. It's the value they deliver to their customers and consumers. And it's also the value that society gains from having good products and services out there that actually help people. So that's kind of number one. Is it connects strategy and execution. There's also a human element, and I'll just move this way. So the human experience is basically it's kind of a triad. It's the top connecting the bottom and then the sideways connection to the UH to the consumer arena where we bring the customer into our domain and we really begin to understand the nuances of their needs and what is what it is they're looking for.

8:32 So many purchases and UH and and experiences are based on feelings these days, and it's really about feelings. If you go into a store and you get a good feeling for whatever reason, whether it's the core, whether it's UH, you know, the friendly staff, whatever the case may be, that experience is going to carry with you and you're going to recommend that store to other people. Uh you know. Conversely, if you go to a place you get terrible service and it's bad food or whatever, you know, the experience is going to guide you to not recommend that place and give it bad reviews. And the way the social media are today and the way we have so much available information to our consumers is that they will you know, they will write you up really bad and it will it will cast gay quickly. And so we have to be cognizant of number one, what is the experience that people are are gaining from your product or service, service, and and what are the nuances like for example, there what are their values? What are their internal values? What are there what what drives them? Uh, you know, on a daily basis? What are they concerned about the environment?

9:49 Is your product environmentally friendly? Are they conscious about you know, about about other aspects of uh social justice or whatever? And all of those things things must be considered in today's market. Because people are focused on those things, they become part of the value experience. Very crisp, I want to go back to what you said at the very begning because you said it very I want to say it with that, with a lightness of touch that because is so I think so much of the water that you swim in. But I do want to call it out as you do. Being the premise of your book you said, you say that to operate well in this demanding era that you just described, organizations must release that direct control and empower the people with clear direction, specific boundaries, and the right amount of accountability.

10:38 So I do want to talk about each one of those elements a little bit here, because I think your experience that you've got in the military, especially understanding a bit about that, that releasing that direct control. I still find it amazing today, Colin, how many organizations are run from still that command and control sort of spirit and very very you know, on interest and really reduction and control and through it empowering their employees. And what I've come to on that, and this really was interesting, especially during the pandemic and after pandemic, when people were still wanting to work from home, there was a resistance for that. And when I ask leaders, really, why do you want your people back in the office, what they could admit to me was they do not believe that people would be working if they couldn't see them. So if you could first just kind of talk a little bit about, you know, what does that mean to release that direct control.

11:30 Sure. So what we found, and this has been studied many times over, is that when you take people who have some modicum of intelligence and they're familiar with, you know, business models or technology or whatever. But you know, basically, most people have an intelligence today that they didn't have decades ago. And so we're dealing with people that are a lot a lot more technically savvy and understand the world of consumerism and business better than we did when we were their age. And also people today, the younger generations, they do not want to be controlled. They want to be respected, they want to be engaged, they want to be led, they don't want to be told what to do.

12:22 And there's lots of research to prove all this out. So many of leaders come from kind of the old school of you tell people what to do and they go do it. Today's world is so complex and the complexity is just rising every day. You can't do that anymore. It doesn't work. And organizations have been discovering that over the past several years. The problem is they don't know. They don't know what they replace that with. This is something, This is an answer to replace their current operating model of command and control with something that they can actually implement.

13:06 This is an implementable system that gives them the tools and the resources to essentially decentralized control, distribute authority at the same time provide very clear, crisp guidelines on what it is they want to do and describe the outcomes that they want to achieve, and then let their people go do that. So two things I want to go back on. One thing that I just want to really point out that I love what you said in your book and goes back to what you said about people knowing now more than they did two decades ago. I thought it was interesting that in the beginning of the book you actually say that workers resist being controlled as they often possess more knowledge regarding entities and offerings antechnical capabilities than their leaders do. So it's not just that they even know more, is that they know more even about their own business than their leaders do. It's really important to point out and just how you know, I think about just how what am I looking for? A derogatory that would be to be told to do something that you know more about than the leader does do it in a certain way.

14:13 So then the second thing I wanted to us to talk about more about, because I love a lot of my world Colin, is empowering people. But I'm just going to guess that you and I do it a little bit differently. So when you talk about empowering people within organizations and you guide organizations to do that, what does that look like for you? Well, it basically starts with a very clear strategy based on goals at the highest level of the the ever framework which is behind me. You see, strategy is about alignment and it's a hierarchy. But basically this is a combination of hierarchy and networks. The network is at the bottom, that's where x secution happens, and that's where flows, that's where value flows, and at the strategy level that gives us alignment and the hierarchical aspect of an organization is what provides that alignment. What many organizations struggle with is casting their strategy in terms that the people that are executing the strategy can understand and be clear about what it is they're trying to do. And so that involves a couple of things. It involves number one, starting with goals before strategy. So we ask that a organization to find three to five goals per year and then to find the outcomes that they want in order to be

15:45 able to measure whether they achieve the goal or not. Once they define the outcomes, which can be monetized most of the time by the way, then they create, then they look at what are the different strategies they can use to achieve those outcomes in pursuit of the goal. Once that's done and it's crisp been clear, it basically is interpreted from the next level down for their level, how can they contribute to those organizational goals? And then each level down basically takes the goals of the previous level and says, how can we contribute to those to make this all happen. So literally everyone in the organization is pulling their oars in the same direction. That's to me, that's empowerment because you've given people the understanding of what it is the organization is trying to do. Even within a business unit or a department, the direction is clear and the outcomes are clear, and that empowers people to go do their thing.

16:50 Boy, you said that's so much better than I could have summarized on your behalf. So I'm glad I asked. Thanks for that, Colin. And on that note, let's take our first break. I'm your host, doctor Earlie Cortez, who run the Year with Colin O'Neil, an entrepreneur, thought leader, business executive, organizational change agent, international trainer, conference speaker, author, and executive coach. We've been talking about his latest book, Take Control By Giving Up Control. We'll be right back. Doctor Elise Cortes is a management consultant specializing in meaning and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author. She helps companies visioneer for greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and commitment within the workforce. To learn more or to invite a lease to speak to your organization, please visit her at Elisecortes dot com. Let's talk about how to get your employees working on purpose. This is working on purpose with doctor Elise Cortes. To reach our program today or to open a conversation with Elise, send an email to Alise A. L I se at Elisecortes dot com. Now back to Working on Purpose.

18:19 Thanks for staying with us and welcome back to Working on Purpose. I'm your host, doctor Elise Cortes, as I too, am dedicated to helpment creator world where people realize their potential at work, are led by inspirational leaders that help them find and contribute their greatness, and we do business at Betters the World. I continue, I continue to research and write my own books. So my last one came out in March of twenty twenty three. It's called The Great Revitization. How activating meeting and purpose can radically in live in your business. And I wrote it to help leaders understand what today's workforce really wants. And then I provide twenty two best projects that you can put into your culture to provide that for them. You can find my books on Amazon dot com or my website gustodeshnow dot com if you are just now joining us. My guest is Colin O'Neil. He's the author of Take Control By giving Up Control, the value centered fast track to organizational growth. So the next thing I wanted to talk about here a Colonists is just I love how you put things together, put your and your word nexus is also very interesting how you bring a nest together ideas.

19:17 And when you were talking about the various things that organizations face in terms of problems, I think there was a good list of twenty three or something like that, just a small little list that our organizations are up against. You were talking about what kind of an org what kind of an approach to deal with those? They might they embrace them? Of course that's the one that you were created. But what I also want to have you talk about is you mentioned four specific areas that this idea of prioritizing value as a catalyst for a lasting enterprise impact and success what they're sitting around. So if we could talk about those four starting with, you know, the elevated distributed authority, adaptive leadership, and worker enablement. If we can start there, I think what you have put for here is so full, It is very holistic, and I think that the breadth of it is actually quite quite beautiful.

20:08 Thank you. Yeah. So I created this system. It's really a meta business model, if you will, And the way it differs from traditional business models is it uses these three things distributed authority, adaptive leadership, and enabled workers as the basis for modern creativity and innovation. That is, that is the key right there. Traditional business models don't do that, and so this is saying, look, you've got to look at some different things than you have been in the past, because this world is very different from what we experience in the last century as well as in the first two decades of this century. The other thing is the as I mentioned earlier, the disconnect between strategy and execution.

21:02 There's a translation error. It's basically a mismatch between what leaders are thinking they want and what workers are seeing what they're supposed to do. And almost invariably, almost every organization that I consult with this disconnect is seriously impacting their bottom line and their ability to create and deliver value. The other thing is the value system itself, the value creation system. There's something that's been around for probably thirty or more years, is something called a value stream. And value stream is where essentially it's the end to end creation of value from start to the end of delivery, where customers want something and then it gets created or generated or delivered in some way so that it's a value to them. Many organizations fail to understand how that value is created and how it flows through their system because it doesn't flow hierarchically, it doesn't flow down functional stove pipes, it flows across the organization. And so we bring value streams back into the picture and say this is where the value is actually created and delivered, and

22:34 so we are able to optimize that flow with minimal friction. And the last thing that this approach does is it brings customers into the discussion of what it is that they really value, and it gets into the nuances, like I said earlier, of things that are subconscious to the customers yet are very impactful in their decision making and that inform their experiences. You know what I find so interesting and exciting about these kinds of discussions around value creation, Colin is one thing as a as an entrepreneur myself who has created various programs and methods, is I'm very aware that a lot of people really and I love when you said the unconscious piece, a lot of people don't necessarily know totally all that they want or need or could use.

23:28 I go back to Apple, did we really think we really needed a phone like that that they produced? And now, of course we can't live without it. So I'm interested in your perspective since you are so much about value and if you could say a bit more about rolling the customer into the process of value creation. I love that idea. I would love to hear maybe some examples of that too. And you mentioned the unconscious piece, So for me, like I'm constantly researching a lot of things around, you know, positive psychology being kinds of things, and I've got a pretty good strong finger in that pulse, and I know what the best practices are. What I also know is most organizations are not even close.

24:10 To those best practices. They don't know what they don't know. So what I'd love to have you talk about, especially now that we're in this value creation zone and the customers are now involved, is how do we ultimately, how do we maximize that interplay so that the highest, best possible value is created. Sure, so we use something called fusion teams. Fusion teams are not new, the concept has been around a long time. Let's say small, self managing, self organizing, cross functional team and basically we look for four components. We look for a business component, someone that represents business and understands the nature of whatever business they're in, someone that understands the technology, because almost all products and services today have some technological component.

24:58 We have, we have the customer themselves who bring in these subtle nuances that we can we can understand and write into our value proposition. And then we have a psychologist or someone who understands the human psyche. Colin, are you just saying this to melt my heart? You aren't you? So, so we really need someone that can that can pull that out and and articulate those underlying needs that many people have and don't need. They don't know how to speak their needs. And so that fusion team of those four components, we can create that for a product or product line, or we can create it at each level of the organization, at the strategic, at the business unit level, and at the department level or product product delivery level. So we can use those four components in multiple ways to extract the true essence. And the Apple example is just so classic. I mean, my gosh, Steve Jobs was such a visionary, and you know he basically said, I don't want to give people what they want. I want to give people what they need, and they don't know what they need yet. So he was able to really pull that off.

26:20 Indeed, I just I love celebrating that. So then now two more things that we can drill down on that relative to what you were just describing. I love that Fusion team concept, Colin. I'm so glad that you gave that to us. That's so beautiful. You also then talk about this idea of hypothesis driven experimentation. Is that where that happens and that team together is using that kind of a methodology, that kind of an approach. Well, that team, that Fusion team, gets feedback from that method, but it's actually the implementers. It's actually the people that are doing the work and executing on the strategies that are generating that feedback. And then the Fusion teams look at that and they say, well, we made some assumptions over here or whatever. But it's, uh, the feedback loop starts at the bottom. It starts at the at the execution level. The whole idea behind the goal strategy Outcomes approach, which I call g s O s that that's what the GSO is about, is that the whole idea is that the strategy is couched as a hypothesis. So so many times organizations say this is our strategy for the year. Well, first of all, the strategy is typically unmoored from a goal, so it's it's orphaned immediately, right, It's like, oh, here's a strategy, Well to what end? Right? How you how do you know if you've achieved your strategy? Well you don't because we need to start with goals, and goals are measurable and they're specific. And you know that you

27:53 use the smart technology, the smart acronym. You know, that's that's what the we need to start with. Now, when we create our strategy, we say we start the strategy with we believe that if we do X, we will achieve Y, and then that allows the organization at all levels to start experimenting on that strategy. So quarter over quarter, we take a chunk and we say, if we're going to if this is our strategy and we think it's going to achieve these results, let's experiment in the first quarter and we should get these results to show that we're moving in the right direction. And all you're looking for is positive movement. If you see that it's happening, then you do more of that. If you realize because of your experiments that oops this was not the right strategy.

28:48 Let's go to this other thing over here that was our second choice. Or during the during the prototyping or experimentation process, someone realizes, oh my god, if we got this little piece of technology that's actually open source and we stuck it in here, we could do all of this a lot faster and a lot better. So that's how experimentation happens, because the people closest to the work are the ones that are most knowledgeable about how to make it effective. Okay, I love all of that. Now the next question, then, can you give us an example of a client or media, an organization or that you know of that is doing something like this that can help us really feel it?

29:29 Sure? Sure. So in one organization I was working with, you know, fairly, our thirty billion dollar company, there was one area that was really a poor It was it was poorly received and people were complaining about this one thing, you know, when I joined the company. It was it was about onboarding. When I join your company, for these benefits, I have to go through way, way, way too many hoops and so that was a big complaint. So basically the company said, well, all right, they gave they gave a goal or they said, this is our goal. We want to improve this onboarding and so organization, you go figure it out. Well, they initially said, if we do these things, we think that that will give us the smoother onboarding and the customer satisfaction that they're looking for. Well, they went down that road and after about a month or two, they realized that was not moving the needle.

30:34 They were actually engaging users, real users, you know, in basically ab testing and saying what do you think does this work? You know, would you would you agree that this is faster or better or whatever. And they said, no, it's not. It's it's this other thing that's really you know, it's tripping us up. And so there was one person who was on this team that said, you know what, if we do this other thing, I think that this will really turn it around. And one and in fact they did. They they took that new approach based on that one person's technical knowledge and they and they introduced it into the mix and a month later the curve started going up and the feedback was was great, and and UH onboarding improved and they got higher scores, they got more clicks, and they went through and they didn't go and balance and all that other stuff. So that's an example of how it worked. Not only did they think they would take a year to do that to fix that problem, it took them three months.

31:40 Mm hmm. What a concept. Talking into the direct source system that can actually help you solve your problem. Sounds good to me. Sounds good to me. All right, let's let's grab our last break here. I'm your I'm your host. Doctor Earlies Cortez went on the air with Colin O'Neill, who's an entrepreneur, thought leader, business executive, organizational change agent, international trainer, conference speaker, author, and executive coach. We've been talking about his new book, Take Control By Giving Up Control. We'd be right back.

32:22 Doctor Elise Cortes is a management consultant specializing in meaning and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author. She helps companies visioneer for greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and commitment within the workforce. To learn more or to invite Elise to speak to your organization, please visit her at Elisecortes dot com. Let's talk about how to get your employees working on purpose. This is working on Purpose with doctor Elise Cortes. To reach our program today or to a in a conversation with a lease send an email to a lease a Lisee at Eliscortes dot com. Now back to working on Purpose.

33:14 Thanksteresting with us, and welcome back to working on Purpose. I'm your host, doctor Lei's Cortes. As I mentioned in the last break that my latest book came out, The Great Vandalization, in March of twenty twenty three. What I did for you is I created a free organizational assessment for you to ascertain the extent to which your current organization law culture is meaning the discerning needs of today's workforce. So you can download the assessment. HiT's just three pages at gustodeshnow dot com if you are just down joining us. My guest is Colin O'Neil. He's the author of Take Control By Giving Up Control, value centered, fasttracked to organization growth what we've been talking about today. So the last segment here, Colin, I really wanted to focus on the last part of your book. I like, again, how crisply you organize your book? And that was really We're talking about the advanced technologies, the leadership talent, and the feedback and learning. So let's start with the advanced technologies. You're advocating for various ways that organizations can use this in this modern era, So let's just start there. Some thoughts about advanced technologies.

34:15 Sure, well, not only has technology advanced a whole lot in the last decade or and a half, but it's it's actually the rate of change is almost exponential. Almost every day new technology is coming out that will solve some problem, and organizations need to be ready to adopt new technologies like very quickly. And in order to do that, they need to be structured and organized and run in a way that allows them to do that. Well, the entity value realization system is that is that the fuel that when you adopt a distributed authority and empower your workers and have adaptive leaders who are who set up an environment for success, that's how those technologies are rapidly integrated into the business processes and product delivery. Now I also say about AI. Artificial intelligence has changed the game in ways that we can't even imagine yet. I see some people go, oh, it's just you know, it's just a fad, it'll it'll go away. But honestly, it is a total game changer. And so organizations, if they want to adopt AI, they need to do it in an intentional way. They just can't do it on a you know,

35:47 a hit miss approach. So when we are crisp about our goals and our strategies, then are folks at the at the bottom of the stack who are actually making the stuff work on a daily basis. They're the ones that are looking for ways to introduce AI so that the flow is smoother, they get more bang for the book, et cetera, et cetera. There's no way that that organizational leaders can know enough about AI as it changes almost on a daily basis to begin to project, oh, you know, a year from now, we're going to do this. It's just not the way it works. It has to be a constant adoption so artificial intelligence. In fact, Einstein said in an interview in nineteen twenty nine, he said, knowledge is nothing compared to imagination AI. If you can imagine it, you can do it.

36:48 I appreciate that last sentence, especially Colin. I wanted to share something when it comes to the world of technology. I want to I was speaking. I was struggled to go speak in San Diego just before I was coming into your neck of the way, and I lost my my depit card and I realized it, you know, at that morning as I was going to the airport, and I thought, oh my gosh, I got I got a call because I want My big thing was I wanted to make sure a call so there were no charges. On my card. And I couldn't find, couldn't find, couldn't find. I actually called my banker, and I didn't get the actual banker. I called my bank branch. Couldn't get through it, couldn't get there, couldn't through. And finally, somewhere in there I think, I did a search for lost debit card for my bank and I got a number and I dialed that number, and literally within like two and a half minutes, I had it. Had it had confirmed all of my current charges that those were mind us, so therefore I could shut the card off. Do I want a new card?

37:43 Yes? I do. And it was amazing, right, how crisp it was. Now, if I had just called the bank and talked to a human, I don't know what that process would have been like. But because I found the right technical system to plug into problems and all two and a half minutes or les's probably less than that. Yeah, yeah, it really is amazing. And the companies that make these adjustments faster than their competitors are going to are going to win. Yeah. Yeah. So then now that leads us to the second area that I wanted you to speak more about, because this is definitely part of my jam. That's talent part. So if you could speak a bit more about your perspective about how company, what companies need to do here and that domain that be divine.

38:24 Sure. So, just before talent, we want to talk about leadership. Leadership in the modern world is different than leadership as it used to be. The leaders before used to be what we called experts. They would know more than the people they work for them. That's not how it is today. Leaders today need to understand people. They need to understand how to lead with compassion and empathy and motivate people in ways that they haven't traditionally done. And when we create these what we call adaptive leaders. Adaptive leaders are those that can make decisions and adapt in real time to whatever's happening. They're they're able to make the adjustments at the right time. When we have adaptive leaders, then we have we have employees who are now empowered too, you know, sort of be creative and be a voice that they actually have a voice to say, if we did this this, you know, we could do this thing better and not be afraid to speak up. And they also have an opportunity to experiment without getting punished because they're validating the hypothesis that the strategy uh strategy statement.

39:46 So the combination of adaptive leaders and empowered workers is the crux, you know, and and put on that the clarity of the U of the goals and and you've got magic. I mean is it is just incredible to watch teams and organizations that adopt these adopt these methods, how rapidly they can create value, how rapidly they can change course, and how much much more innovative they become. M you know, from my vantage point, Colin, part of the reason I'm an organizational psychologist is because I revere the world of work. I was raised by first farmers and the restaurant tours, and work was not a bad for letter word. It was a way of living, a way of being in the world, and so so much of the work that I'm out to do is to help more organizations create what I call destination workplaces where people really can realize their potential through their experience of work.

40:47 It's so incredible and I've seen so and I know you have to so many examples. We're literally watching someone transform before your very eyes and a matter of months or years. Is really incredible. So the motivational piece that, of course I do it from the lens of inspiration, right, It's just so so important. And so that combination of the adaptive leader and the empowered worker, right, and then to be and then when you recognize you're doing something together that you really believe in, that you believe really is going to better make the lives better of your customers, you're doing something that betters the world. I mean that you know that's worth getting up for, you know. And so I really appreciate what you're putting forth in this particular chapter because it's totally my jam, and I wanted to echo a little bit more of that because for me, the one step further that I take it is, you know, how leaders can This is what happened for me is when leaders can actually see and know their people well enough and see beyond who they are today to be able to cast the vision of what they believe they could be tomorrow, so that person can see it and want want to reach for it for themselves. That's the strongest mover that we can get in people, that internal inspirational burst. So I wanted just to add that component in there and let you comment on that. And do you think that's completely crazy? Can you mind some of that or no?

42:04 That is the absolute truth. I like you have seen it so many times and it makes my heart feel good, and you know, sometimes I'm almost I'm almost teary when I think of, you know, this, this person who was you know, very you know, stuck in their little cube. They didn't really communicate with anyone, and they didn't really make any great contribution blossom into this you know, creative person. And that was they could communicate and and be part of a solution and just watch them grow as a person and while doing that, creating value for the organization. So beautiful. Okay, So now the next piece that I wanted you to speak on is the feedback and learning.

42:49 And you know, so many organizations and is this part of what I teach in my programs to Colin is how do we give feedback that doesn't diminish and demoralize, but actually tells people I care about you, and I know you can do even better than you already are, and there's even more for you to grow into. So the feedback and learning piece is very near to my heart of the most my life. Learning I probably will continue until I get dropped into the ground. So your perspective on learning and feedback, we're sure. Well, we build a feedback loop into the EVER system basically as these GSOs, these goal strategy outcome components as they are basically interpreted throughout the organization. That's what I call the GSO steel thread. So there's a trace ability basically from the top the strategy level all the way down to the execution level. One can trace it through automated tools. What all they're doing is tied to and it all rolls up to these higher level goals. Well, when we establish that feedback loop, then we can see our teams are our people actually can true to the overall objectives of the organization number one. Number two, If they're not, why we ask what is going on? Is the is the goal not clear or the outcomes wrong?

44:14 Is the strategy wrong? Have we not given them enough freedom? Do they have the right skill set? So the question, instead of being punitive, is basically, what is the source of this part of the organization not bringing value. Let's understand why and then fix that. And that. That is basically the feedback loop. It's part of all that is discovering what's working, what's not, and then realizing that where the areas the problem areas are, Let's go in, shine a microscope in there and figure out what's going on and fix that.

44:56 I like that a lot. I had, I guess to my show several probably several years ago, who would run with the CEO of healthcare and hospitals for years? It's that almost the exact same thing. He said. I never went out for people. Was always the process and the procedures that I want to go look at first, because the people wanted to make things work. So I appreciate that. So we have time just a little bit here to bring us home here for the show, Colin, if you could talk about your notion of value culture, you know, of course I'm totally in for that. Sure, Well, there's many aspects to add value culture. Actually the whole conversation up till now. Basically those are pieces of value culture when we put value first, and value in multiple terms. Value for the organization in terms of profits, value for the customer in terms of their experience and how it's going to help them in their lives, and value for the employees, the people who are actually doing the work. So all that those are different kinds of value, but they're all related, nonetheless, and so the value culture cultivates all three of those, and it does so through the model that's behind me as well as these on the let's see on the right side, these what we call value amplifiers, and these twelve value amplifiers are the core of the value culture. If you pay attention to

46:29 these things, you will be focused on value and everything will be fine. Very crisp man. Okay, so you now probably know that this show is listened by people around the world, Colin, and they really tune in for a couple of reasons. They tune in because either they are looking to improve their way of leading and becoming a better effective business er. They're trying to become better in just the world, becoming better human beings and they're trying to plug into something that is that's just it's a good movement for them. What would you like to leave them with. Well, I would just like to say that this model is really for executives, senior executives, and management professionals who are facing incredible challenges today that have never been experienced before.

47:16 Because of the volatility of the markets, because of the changing in consumer preferences, because of the different workforce. So many leaders are facing these challenges. This model addresses many of those challenges and it essentially gives them the tools and the tactics to implement things in ways that they don't have to reorganize. They just have to focus on value. And when they do that and do these other things like empower the workers to distribute authority, create adaptive leaders, use advanced technology, create feedback loops and clarity through you through strategy distribution, then they will have managed most of the major challenges that they are facing today and it will prepare them for their future, because who knows what the future is going to bring.

48:17 So true, Colin, thank you so much for coming into my world. Thanks to our dear friend Eddie, I want to thank you for one writing the book. I know how heart it is to write a book, and that one it's incredibly whole. The work must have been tremendous and intense, and thank you for coming on, working on purpose and sharing your heart, your soul and your work with listeners across the globe. Thank you, Elise. It's my man pleasure. Listeners and viewers, you are going to want to learn more about Colin O'Neill the work he does helping clients connect their organization strategy to execution through value streams, portfolios and the use of derivative goals in his book Take Control By Giving Up Control. Visit him at Let's see Theeversystem dot ai if you've believe that, so the ever System V and an ever ev ersystem dot ai. Last week, if you missed the live show, you can always get it be a recorded podcast or wherever you get your podcast.

49:11 We were on air with Eric g talking about his book The Power of Personality, Unlock the Sequest to understand everyone in your life, including yourself. It was a fabulous conversation where we explained the four main types of personalities gatherers, hunters, Shamans and Smith's and what they most value, introducing a means to understand people we work with and care about. Next week will be on the air with doctor Jo c Amren talking about his new book, Spiritually Intelligent Leadership, How to Inspire by Being Inspired. See you there and remember that work as one of the best adventures and means of realizing our potential and making the impact we crave. So let's work on Purpose. We hope you've enjoyed this week's program. Be sure to tune into Working on Purpose featuring your host, doctor Elise Cortes, each week on W four CY. Together we'll create a world where thisusiness operates conscientiously. Leadership inspires and passion performance and employees are fulfilled in work that provides the meaning and purpose they crave. See you there, Let's work on Purpose.