How Leaders Provoke the Future by Overcoming Fatal Human Flaws

At a time with ever increasing change and uncertainty, it is extremely challenging to set a course direction in business. As the pandemic has highlighted, successfully navigating this uncertainty can be the difference between success and failure. Yet,...
At a time with ever increasing change and uncertainty, it is extremely challenging to set a course direction in business. As the pandemic has highlighted, successfully navigating this uncertainty can be the difference between success and failure. Yet, we humans are naturally wired to “wait and see” when uncertain of a way forward. In this episode, the authors of Provoke share how the best leaders move faster than their peers to identify and shape important inflection points. In short, they take action to provoke the future, rather than react to that which has been brought forth by others.
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What's working on purpose anyway? Each
week we ponder the answer to this question.
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People ache for meaning and purpose at
work, to contribute their talents passionately
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and know their lives really matter.
They crave being part of an organization that
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inspires them and helps them grow into
realizing their highest potential. Business can be
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such a force for good in the
world, elevating humanity. In our program,
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we provide guidance and inspiration to help
usher in this world we all want
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working on purpose. Now Here is
your host, Doctor Elise Cortes. Hi,
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Eric, Welcome back to Working on
Purpose. Thanks for joining us again
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this week. I'm your host,
Doctor Release Cortes. Joining you lie from
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Dallas, which is home base for
me. If you don't know me yet,
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I'm a management consultant specializing in meaning
and purpose, organizational lago therapist,
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inspirational speaker, social scientist, and
author. I help companies discover and articulate
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their purpose to thread it through their
culture and operations. And I work with
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organizations to develop inspirational leaders to create
cultures where people actually want to come to
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work and do their best. I
provide programs like the Grab Your Gusto that
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enable individual team members to discover and
unleash their passion and to catalyze fulfillment,
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engagement, and productivity. You can
learn more about me and how we can
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work together at eliscoretes dot com,
orgustodashnow dot com. Let me think,
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my partner and sponsor work Proud,
we are a perfect collaboration. Everyone wants
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to know they matter and that the
work they do is meaningful and appreciated.
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Work Proud helps companies to do just
that through their mobile platform that is built
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to encourage employees to share stories and
recognize each other's contribution. Work Croud empowers
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hr and business leaders to help create
company cultures where all employees are inspired to
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feel proud of their work and proud
of their company. Learn more about work
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Proud and a recent study they've commissioned
about pride in the workplace at workproud dot
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com. Forward Slash doctor Elise Cortes
with us today our two senior executive leaders
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from Deloitte. Jeff Tough is a
principle at Deloitte and holds various leadership roles
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across the firm sustainability, innovation,
instrum practices. Stephen Goldbach is a principal
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at Deloitte and serves as the firm's
Chief strategy Officer. Together they have co
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authored Detonate Why and How Corporations must
blow up best Practices and bring up Beginner's
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Wind to Survive and the recently released
Provoke How Leaders Shape the feature by overcoming
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fatal human flaws, which we'll be
talking about in this conversation today. Jeff
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joins us today from Boston, and
Steve comes today from New York City.
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Jeff and Steve, Welcome to Working
on Purpose. It's great to have you.
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Nice. Yeah, nice to be
here. It's a great I keep
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great company. I like this.
I like who comes into my studio.
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So, as I said to you
before we got on air, I slightly
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liked your book. It was fantastic, and I do make it a practice
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to read the books cover to cover
when I come on because you're part of
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my educational program, you guests,
so I want to jump in first.
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It seems to me when I was
I became aware of your book, I
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thought, what a timely book,
What a perfect time for this book.
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So here we are, we've been
knocked down by the pandemic, and you
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sum up in the book that the
book is about looking forward and working through
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the natural human instincts that keep people
frozen in place, thinking and analyzing,
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and instead forcefully gathering the will to
act in the face of deepening uncertainty and
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do something I thought that was really
compelling. So first I want to ask,
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you know, is this something you've
been working on for a while,
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or where did the book come from? And why now? Sure, well
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I can jump in first on that
one release, it doesn't in many ways,
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and in retrospect feel as though this
was a perfect time for some of
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the concepts and Provoke to hit the
airwaves, hit the bookstores in no small
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part because we have as a society, for the first time in a long
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time, come to viscerally understand what
uncertainty feels like. But it's not a
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new topic to us. It's not
a new topic to the writing and the
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research that Steve and I do,
and it's really been catalyzed by the experiences
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that we've had serving our clients and
serving the industries that we consult to over
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the course of the last call it
two decks decades or so. The core
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observation at the heart of Provoke,
end of Detonate, our previous book is
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that we are living through, not
just in pandemic times, but we're living
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through right now a shift in the
nature of essentially the context that we all
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live in. And what I mean
by that is, for decades and decades,
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in business and in our personal lives, we have been generally governed primarily
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by linear change, meaning the world
changes. It's not perfectly predictable, but
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generally we've been able to rely on
data from the past to guide the decisions
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we make, to take risk out
of the decisions, to take risk out
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of the moves that we make,
whether in business or in our personal lives.
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What we've seen over the course of
the last call it five or six
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years in particular, is a real
shift away from linear change to one of
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more exponential change. And what that
has meant is that we need to shift
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our stance as leaders from being primarily
concerned about taking risk out of decisions to
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constantly having to face uncertainty. And
that's say as I say, that's something
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that we've lived in real life with
our clients for some time now. That
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requires a completely different toolbox and set
of skills than historically we've built up within
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companies. And it just so happens
that as as uncertainty has become more visceral
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for all of us, some of
the ideas in Provoke in particular seem to
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be resonating well with the audiences that
we've gone out to. Wow, I
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just I guess, you know,
it's just when that makes so much sense
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that it's been in the works for
a while and there's been a crescendo.
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However, it just feels like,
Gosh, what a perfect time to bring
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this thing out. And I do
I feel like what you've done here,
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gentlemen, is you have you offered
not just some inspiration to step into it,
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but you've given us some really valuable
tools to do that. And so
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one of the things that I found
really interesting about your book is this.
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You already talked about the momentum of
change and such, but you talk about
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how this idea of when leaders need
proof more analysis to be able to make
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decisions, it's getting hard and harder. And you talk about the if and
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the wind curve, and you say
that it's at these peaks when new opportunities
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shift from possibility if to the inevitability
of win, which I thought was so
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interesting, and the chance and by
the way, your whole analogy of the
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roller coaster in the very beginning totally
made sense. I hate roller coasters,
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by the way, so I'm not
one of those against many adults too,
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I do, at least I didn't
like them as a kid either, So
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talk to us a little bit about
that that if win. Yeah, I
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mean the the concept is that certain
trends emerge and some of them die out
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because they're either not desirable from a
customer standpoint where they're not technically feasible,
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or that you just can't make money
taking advantage of those taking advantage of those
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trends. But lots of trends gather
momentum over time, and hence the building
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up of potential energy at the top
of the at the top of the roller
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coaster analogy, and as it builds
up and builds up and gathers that potential
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energy, eventually it's very clear that
it's each of desirable, feasible, and
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viable, and then it's just a
matter of when the trend will come to
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fruition. And the key to understanding
the difference is that as a leader,
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you have to make different choices about
what to do in a business that's dependent
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on that trend depending on where you
sit in that roller coaster. So if
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you're in the if phase, you
still got a plan for the possibility that
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the trend could come to fruition.
If you're in the when phase and your
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business is predicated on the opposite trend
being true and it's just a matter of
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time before that new trend overwhelms it, then you're effectively in a wind down
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business. You just haven't decided to
do that, and we don't think it's
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a very good choice to accidentally end
up in a wind down company. Wind
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down company being a the moral equivalent
of a pop up firm to take advantage
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of something, except it's not explicitly
popping up, it's actually just in existence
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already. So it's critical for the
leader to understand where you sit that in
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that phase, change and shift your
actions based on whether you're in the if
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phase or the when phase. Yeah, I really appreciated how you articulated whether
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or not we've got an opportunity here
or whether we need to start winding down.
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I thought that was very, very
extremely well articulated and useful. So
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when I was looking at what you
guys were doing, it's like you know,
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you guys are definitely talking about behavioral
economics, but you guys are really
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also psychology majors here too in this
book, right, So some of the
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stuff you talk about with these with
the human biases that we're going to cover
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here, are fascinating. So I
found this both fascinating and frightening that we
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humans do this. You right,
In general, we miss trends, not
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because we aren't looking, but because
our brain processes the raw data of what
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we see through an unconscious filter of
our own experiences. Unless you consciously learn
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how to turn that filter off,
it can be hard to see something right
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in front of your nose. Yeah, so how do we turn it off?
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What do we do? So?
So why don't I why don't I
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set up why that condition exists and
talk about what we What we describe in
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the book is the emergence of organizational
blinders and then maybe Steve, you can
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talk about the underlying fatal flaws and
biases that caused those. So going back
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to this theme of the nature of
change itself accelerating, Historically, when we've
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looked forward into the future and tried
to plan what we're going to do,
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we've been able to have a reasonably
straightforward view of what the likely future is,
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and then some upside and downside boundaries. It's the future has been,
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as I said before, not predictable, but it doesn't really. The surprises
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have been far fewer and far far
lesser in magnitude than they than they have
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been recently in the time of exponential
change. So we've been able to look
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forward use historical data to say,
you know what, I know the range
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of different outcomes that are going to
happen in this industry or with this opportunity,
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and I can plan accordingly. Increasingly, Steve and I would argue that
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as exponential change impacts the world,
we actually need to massively open our peripheral
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vision to the possibilities in the future. And one of the tricks for doing
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that that we talk about in the
book is to not rely on projections of
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the future, but to have the
humility as a leader to understand you don't
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know the way the future is going
to turn out, and instead the best
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way to plan looking forward is not
to try to project, but try to
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imagine multiple plausible equally plausible versions of
the future, and then start to play
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some bets according to which of those
versions you think is likely become true.
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The problem we've got, though,
is that even as a well informed leader
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of any sort of organization, you
may say, look, I really want
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to take that broad peripheral vision and
really consider all the different outcomes. What
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ends up happening is we, inadvertently, because we are human beings, not
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because we're we're ill intentioned or dumb
or or evil in any way. Because
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we're human beings, we naturally fall
prey, prey to blinders that come from
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being individuals acting within organizations, and
eventually we have we get back to a
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narrow range of vision that doesn't allow
us to see the possibilities. So let
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me turn it over to Steve to
describe what's underlying some of those blinders.
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Yeah, a lot of those blinders, and I know we're going to talk
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about this a little bit a little
bit later too. A lot of those
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blinders are ground in cognitive biases that
we are all subject to. And as
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Jeff said, it's we're subject to
them because we're human, not because we're
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inept, and in any way,
it's we are all subject to them,
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and we our hope is that by
naming some of them so that people are
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aware of them, whether it's the
availability bias or the status quo bias,
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which we can get into in a
little bit a little bit more detailed later.
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If you're aware of them, you
can put in place mechanisms like you
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know, liketing more diverse teams that
will help alleviate the impact of those human
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biases on the outcomes. Beautiful said, I completely agree with that, Steve.
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So then of course, if we
taking what both of you just said,
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then then when you write about this, Beautiful in your book, the
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opportunity as leaders or anybody in the
organization is to get really good at pattern
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recognition, which I find both you
know, you're that's probably that's your jam,
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Steve, right, that's what you
do all day. But so talk
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to us a bit about this,
this opportunity to develop this pattern recognition as
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leaders. Yeah, and this is
actually a this is actually a major problem
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because all leaders have pattern recognition,
and the patterns that they've built that recognition
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on, as Jeff described earlier,
are based on linear change. And so
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it feels like we've got more time, it feels like the change is not
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going to happen quickly. But unfortunately
the way exponential curves work that feels like
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a very small thing today, but
it quickly becomes overwhelming in the future.
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In the book, we talk about
the story of the early signs of cord
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cutting being a segment of less than
two percent of the population in two thousand
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and eight, and now cord cutting
behavior and the use of the use of
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streaming services that allow you to not
have appointment television anymore are pervasive, obviously,
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and that was where the executives in
question missed those early signs because they
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were because they were so small.
And so the pattern recognition that we want
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to create is one where instead of
rejecting small early signals, you say,
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ah, I've got to learn to
actually test the contours of what's going on
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there. I've got to create some
tests. And this is something that Jeff
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and I are becoming increasingly clear about, which is that the status quo has
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the unfortunate reality of not feeling very
risky but actually being incredibly risky in an
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exponentially changing world, and doing something
new and different feels risky, so we
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want to avoid it, but actually
isn't risky because you're learning more by taking
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action. And so that's what we
uh that's what we when we talk about
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the instinct. We want to shift
people's instinct from studying to shift that instinct
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to acting. Yeah, and and
somebody who is I have a predilection for
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action. I quite like that,
but yes, I do get frozen and
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analysis paralysis too. So you guys
have already talked about the if win stuff,
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So I do want to come down
to something that I thought was really,
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really frankly just a smashing core hypothesis
that you put forward in your book,
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and that you said that once once
and if becomes a win, and
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nature of the leader's response must change. The opportunity is to focus on the
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moves you can make that will shape
the trend to create a better future,
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one where your organization is advantaged.
So that's just bold, right, and
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I really appreciate that core hypothesis.
It's also inspiring. Well, thank you
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for saying that, Alisa. I
hope it also feels very practical when people
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read about it in the book,
because as we as we think about the
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five poor provocative strategies that any leader
can use, if you've used the first
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two effectively, the first two being
those that you need to apply always when
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you're in that if phase that Steve
talked about before, then you're really well
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prepared to act when you see the
phase change from if to when occurring.
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And as I'm sure we'll talk about
in more detail later on in the discussion,
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which of those other three moves you
make and which of the what type
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of bold action you take is entirely
dependent on how you entered that phase change.
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To begin with, awesome, Jeff, Great, which set us into
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our first break. I'm your host, Doctor Lee's Cortez. We've ben the
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air with the authors of Provoke,
How Leaders Shape the Future by Overcoming Fatal
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human Flaws. They are Jeff Tuff
and Stephen Goldbeck. We've been talking about
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out the importance of developing pattern recognition
to see trends. After the break,
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we're going to talk about some of
those fatal human flaws, those human biases
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that we're all stuck with. Stay
with us, we'll be right back.
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Doctor Elise Cortes is a management consultant
specializing in meaning and purpose. An inspirational
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speaker and author, she helps companies
visioneer for greater purpose among stakeholders and develop
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purpose inspired leadership and meaning infused cultures
that elevate fulfillment, performance and commitment within
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00:16:29.720 --> 00:16:33.360
the workforce. To learn more or
to invite Elise to speak to your organization,
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00:16:33.679 --> 00:16:37.720
please visit her at Eleasecortes dot com. Let's talk about how to get
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00:16:37.759 --> 00:16:49.799
your employees working on purpose. This
is Working on Purpose with doctor Elise Cortes.
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00:16:51.279 --> 00:16:55.159
To reach our program today or open
a conversation with Elise, send an
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00:16:55.200 --> 00:17:03.320
email to Alise Alise at Elisecortes dot
com. Now back to working on Purpose.
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00:17:06.440 --> 00:17:07.680
Thank you for saying with us,
and welcome back to working on Purpose.
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Before we get back to the program, I want to invite you to
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check out my book Purpose Ignited,
How Inspiring Leaders ignite passion and Elevate Cause
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00:17:14.920 --> 00:17:18.440
on Amazon. I wrote to awaken
readers to their passion and purpose and help
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transform them into inspirational leaders who enliven
in the workplace and elevate the contribution of
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00:17:22.720 --> 00:17:25.759
business to all at stakeholders. And
I use the content as a basis for
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00:17:25.799 --> 00:17:30.200
my Filing Inspired Leadership and my Grab
your Gusto programs. You're just joining the
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00:17:30.200 --> 00:17:33.039
program today. My guests are Jeff
Tuff, a principle at Deloitte and who
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holds various leadership roles across the firm
sustainability, innovation and strategy practices, and
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Stephen Goldback, a principle at Deloitte
and serving as the firm's Chief Strategy Officer.
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They are the authors of Provoke,
How Leaders Shape the Future by Overcoming
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fatal human flaws, which is what
we've been talking about today. I'm your
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host, doctor Le's Cortes. So
next, gentlemen, let's talk about some
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of these fatal human flaws, these
biases that we have here and help us
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really understand and what they are,
why they are, and why they're there.
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So you talk about the how these
when when we're looking at the if
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to the wind stages here, and
then you think about how this relates to
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how we're processing the information and looking
for opportunities. So if you could talk
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to us about how these flaws get
in the way of us advantaging our companies.
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Yeah, So, why didn't I
actually lay the foundation for this actually
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rewinding to some of the concepts from
our previous book, Debtonate, which which
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in some ways that we didn't know
it at the time, does kind of
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set the table for Provoke. So
debt Nate was a book about essentially challenging
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the playbooks that have gotten us here, because they're not going to get us
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there. And so the first thing
that gets in the way of most organizations
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who are trying to provoke the future
they are looking for is that they fall
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back on the kind of playbooks and
the orthodoxies of the organization that they operate
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in there, and orthodoxies here by
that, I mean the the stuff that's
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just in the ether about our company, our industry, what matters, what
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doesn't matter, what our competitors are
likely to do. And the challenge is
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that as we have lived, going
back to the point of linear change,
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as we've lived in a world that
has been governed primarily by orthodoxy and playbooks
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because being safe and staying safe was
the name of the game, we've forgotten
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the trick of learning inductively and being
curious, going out and trying things.
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And so over time we think what's
happened is and this is in part due
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to the natural human biases that you've
talked about before. We've lost the excuse
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me, we've lost the will to
go and consider different ways of doing things.
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And so our call in Debtonate was
really question orthodoxies when you can not
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every orthodoxy needs to be challenged.
Some of them are actually good and necessary,
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But every once in a while,
pick up your head, and increasingly
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all the time, pick up your
head and say, Jesus, is this
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really the way that we need to
things now? Will be the first step
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to understanding when you are operating primarily
because of these so called fatal flaws in
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the human biases. Mm hmmm.
One of the things that I hate hearing
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is that's just how we do things
here. Oh my gosh, really,
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why don't we just go ahead and
get the get the coffin out right now
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right? So in your book you
talk about, you know, ten separate
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biases, ten separate human flaws.
So when you start thinking about those,
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we'll talk about a couple of them
in the segment here. But which of
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them, if any, would you
say? People would say, well,
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that's not really a flaw. That's
that's what. No, that's not a
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flaw. Well, I would say, there there are biases about how humans
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behave and the you know, I'll
call on a couple of them here to
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illustrate the point. And it's not
that they are problematic to living life and
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how how humans have evolved to survive
but in living in it, if you're
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trying to survive in business in an
exponentially changing world, they actually create massive
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problems. So let's talk about Let's
talk about one of them, specifically,
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the affect heuristic bias. The affect
heuristic bias means that we are we are
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wired as human beings to not react
until we feel strong degrees of emotion or
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pain. Okay, So it's that
affect that we respond to either strong happiness
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strong sadness. So I talked earlier
about the cord cutting segment. The opening
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story of the book is about taking
some research that had been done in the
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video and telephony business to an executive
at a media company and saying, there's
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this strange segment of consumers that's doing
something new and we don't totally understand it.
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They want really high speed internet that
they're willing to pay a premium or
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but they don't want the video programming, so they want to unbundle when every
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company at the time was trying to
bundle video, internet and phone. Yes,
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by the way, at least this
was this was what Steve twelve years
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ago or something right right in the
very wollges of the Wow. Yeah.
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So two thousand and two thousand and
eight. So the so the idea there
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was because the segment was so small, it didn't elicit an emotional response in
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the executive. In fact, he
laughed it off and kind of said,
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one point seventy five percent, why
would I care? And of course we
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know that there was the kernel of
you know, the entire business model of
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every streaming company today, and we
know that most of the major media companies
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today have built their own streaming businesses
to compete with the ones who were taking
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advantage of that trend when it was
clear that it was both feasible, desirable,
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and viable. And so that's an
example of where there's nothing again fatal
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in the real world about it,
but in business in an exponentially changing world,
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not having the feeling to react is
problematic. And when you, oh,
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sorry, Alica, well, I
was just going to say, when
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you couple that the type of bias
that Steve is talking about, there the
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affect heuristic bias with a number of
other biases that essentially amount to creating an
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echo chamber, that's where things really
start to go south. So, for
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example, if I just rattle through
a few of them, availability bias is
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something that's natural in all human beings. We tend to overweight information that's more
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readily available to us than information that's
hard to get. Status quo bias the
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tendency to prefer things to stay the
same because we don't. We as human
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beings are are loss of verse and
if we if we feel change happening,
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it feels like we're losing something,
we're losing the present, and therefore we
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tend to look for information reinforces the
status quo, reinforces the way things are.
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And so in the book we talk
through another three or four of these
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that are central to the idea that
if you allow yourself to fall prey to
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these biases just as individuals, you
will end up essentially just continuing to make
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the same decisions you always have historically
and not being able to see that massively
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widened peripheral vision. When all of
those human biases start to interact together in
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an organization, then what we talk
about in the book is being organizational tendencies,
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which maybe Steve you want to comment
on one or two of them.
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That's where really we get the blinders
falling into place. Yeah, the organizational
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tendencies we all see them, at
least you've seen them in your practice.
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Right. It's where we get in
meetings, and we want to avoid embarrassment,
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right, so we spend lots and
lots of time instead of having the
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real discussion in the room, we
have the one on ones pre wiring everyone
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so that the meet isn't actually a
discussion. It's corporate theater. We you
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know, we we we get rid
of all the exploratory research that gets cut
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in every last budget, so we're
not doing anything to be creative or new
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and effectively. What this does when
you think about how organizations and how people
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make decisions, what do they do? There's an available pool of information that
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everyone can draw from, and our
biases and the way we behave as organization
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cause individuals and teams to select from
that pool of information. Right, They
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select some data or some observation and
then they draw a conclusion from it.
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Right, And the bias occurs in
what data is selected and whether it's data
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that conforms to your already prevailing view
or data that's gathered because the organization isn't
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looking outside where it tends to look. That creates a blinder's on what's available
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and Unfortunately, you start to draw
the same old conclusions that everything's fine until
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you're missing really important trends. So
that's how the human biases contort with the
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organizational tendencies to create those blinders.
They just prevent us from looking outside our
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traditional sources of data. Yeah,
and it seems to me, as you're
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talking Steve, that the more uncertain
and scared and affraid intents that we get,
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the worst those blinders become. The
more entrenched we become in those beholden
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to them. Yeah, I mean
that is another that is another bias that
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that exists, which is the escalation
of commitment bias. So the like think
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about how, you know, the
reaction of the famous Blockbuster story where in
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reaction to Netflix they said, we're
not in the DVD to home business,
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we're in the store business. And
that's a you know, it's again it's
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an escalation of commitments. We see
that all the time where businesses, instead
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of challenging the business model that they
have in the face where their business model
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is clearly going to be outmoded,
what they do is they try to make
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their business model suck just a little
bit less. So this is akin to
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the the we talk about. One
of the stories we like to tell is
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how you know, tailoring like a
master tailor and going to get a custom
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piece of clothing made is an industry
that is threatened by technology being able to
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measure a human being using your using
a phone, and instead of adopting technology,
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a lot of tailors do what you
know what the moral equivalent of sucking
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a little bit less is they put
an espresso machine in the waiting room right
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to make it, to make it, not to make it a little bit
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less worse to go there, but
in fact, when you're competing with not
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having to go at all, that's
the point. So escalation of commitment.
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That's a challenge toom So in this
next bit that I want to bring up
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here, this is smashing guys.
What you've done here to help us understand
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just what happened with this example I'm
about to give in relation to how that
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we act in the wardrooms and as
leaders is like brings it home. So
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you say in the Birth of a
Provocation chapter and I quote the failure of
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the United States to anticipate and prepare
for Pearl Harbor is a prime example of
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what happens when Orthodoxy based on past
experiences and embedded belief systems congeal to create
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an inability to act. As we
saw in part one of the book,
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many wardrooms and c suites are beset
by the same issues. Wow, if
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that doesn't get your attention, then
make us understand, like slap across the
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face, what does Yeah, and
I'll speak on behalf of both of us.
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I don't think either one of us
consider ourselves expert historians. So I'm
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sure there's plenty of your listeners who
know a lot more about Pearl Harbor and
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a lot more about history than we
do. But it was interesting to us
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as we explored what happened at Pearl
Harbor alongside other dramatic events like nine to
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eleven or even like the advent of
COVID, that there are some real similarities
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across those And I'll try to characterize
generally what we've seen. Let's take those
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three examples, generally what we've seen
across those three examples, and maybe draw
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some lessons from it. The first
is that every one of those events had
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someone or a small handful of people
standing up well in advance of the event.
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And saying this is not only a
possibility it's likely going to happen.
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It is likely that we will suffer
a massive naval attack by the Japanese.
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It is likely that we will suffer
a terrible terrorist attack. It is likely
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that we will suffer a global pandemic. But because of the affecturistic bias,
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in part that Steve talked about before, and in part because it was just
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a couple of voices who may actually
just sound like cranks, what ended up
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happening is the systems around us,
around the people at the time looked for
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all the reasonable data for why that
was just a really far gone conclusion that
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it was just such a remote possibility
that we don't have to worry about it
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too much. In retrospect, of
course, it's easy to look back on
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these events and say they were entirely
predictable, and if you just look at
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it, you know, added this
piece of data to that piece of data,
402
00:30:14.359 --> 00:30:17.200
we could have said it was going
to happen. But in reality,
403
00:30:17.359 --> 00:30:22.000
no one actually in the moment,
and that's an overstatement for effect. I'm
404
00:30:22.000 --> 00:30:25.000
sure some people were exploring it,
but no one really took the steps to
405
00:30:25.079 --> 00:30:29.440
run the test to understand how likely
is it that this event is going to
406
00:30:29.480 --> 00:30:33.519
happen if we imagine different versions of
the future than the official version of the
407
00:30:33.559 --> 00:30:37.359
future. And that's one of the
things that we're trying to encourage all leaders
408
00:30:37.400 --> 00:30:41.720
to do in the face of uncertainty, is not necessarily jump to conclusions immediately
409
00:30:41.839 --> 00:30:45.119
or not necessarily take undue risks because
you're listening to the chicken littles of the
410
00:30:45.119 --> 00:30:49.400
world. But just you run the
test, understand how you can how you
411
00:30:49.440 --> 00:30:56.119
can be more curious and explore different
possibilities for the future and position yourself so
412
00:30:56.160 --> 00:30:59.640
that we don't not only suffer the
downside of some of those terrible events,
413
00:30:59.640 --> 00:31:03.440
but also so we can take advantage
of the upsides that comes with disruptive change
414
00:31:03.440 --> 00:31:08.039
as well. M HM beautifully said, it's just it's that whole example really
415
00:31:08.039 --> 00:31:11.799
helps us understand the importance of paying
attention to some of these things. And
416
00:31:11.839 --> 00:31:15.920
I want to talk more about one
of your other core hypothesis that you put
417
00:31:15.960 --> 00:31:18.279
forth around the emotional piece of that, but let's rub our last break before
418
00:31:18.279 --> 00:31:22.599
we do that. I'm your host, doctor Relise Cortes. We went on
419
00:31:22.599 --> 00:31:26.359
the air with the authors of Provoke, How Leaders shape the Future by overcoming
420
00:31:26.440 --> 00:31:32.200
fatal human flaws These people are Jeff
Tuff and Stephen Goldbach. After the break,
421
00:31:32.200 --> 00:31:34.680
we're going to talk about the five
principles of provocation they're right about in
422
00:31:34.680 --> 00:31:38.160
their book. Stay with us,
We'll be right back. Doctor Release Cortes
423
00:31:38.240 --> 00:31:44.839
is a management consultant specializing in meaning
and purpose and inspirational speaker and author.
424
00:31:45.160 --> 00:31:51.759
She helps companies visioneer for greater purpose
among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired leadership and
425
00:31:52.000 --> 00:31:57.000
meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment,
performance, and commitment within the workforce.
426
00:31:57.559 --> 00:32:01.920
To learn more or to a lease
to speak to your organization, please visit
427
00:32:01.960 --> 00:32:07.680
her at elisecortes dot com. Let's
talk about how to get your employees working
428
00:32:07.720 --> 00:32:19.200
on purpose. This is Working on
Purpose with doctor Elise Cortes. To reach
429
00:32:19.240 --> 00:32:22.480
our program today or open a conversation
with Alise, send an email to a
430
00:32:22.640 --> 00:32:32.680
lease Alise at elisecortes dot com.
Now back to working on Purpose. Thanks
431
00:32:32.680 --> 00:32:36.000
for stating with us, and welcome
back to Working on Purpose. I have
432
00:32:36.079 --> 00:32:37.960
one of the bit of news that
I want to share with you, and
433
00:32:37.000 --> 00:32:39.799
that is that the anthology that I've
been curating for the last two years is
434
00:32:39.920 --> 00:32:43.720
just fun. Release. We just
actually launched here in Dallas last week.
435
00:32:43.960 --> 00:32:46.200
It's a collection of twenty five stories
for women across the globe who share the
436
00:32:46.200 --> 00:32:50.960
intimate details of finding their purpose and
what they're doing now to serve from it.
437
00:32:50.960 --> 00:32:54.000
It's called Passionately Striving and Why and
indology women who persevere mindly to live
438
00:32:54.039 --> 00:32:58.720
their purpose. So proud of it
I could trust if you're just joining us
439
00:32:58.720 --> 00:33:02.000
today. My guests are Jeff a
principle at Deloitte who holds various leadership roles
440
00:33:02.039 --> 00:33:07.599
across the firm's sustainability, innovation and
strategy practices, and also Stephen Goldbach,
441
00:33:07.880 --> 00:33:12.200
a principal at Deloitte who serves as
the firm's chief strategy officer. They are
442
00:33:12.240 --> 00:33:15.680
the authors of the book provoke how
theyers shape the future by overcoming fatal human
443
00:33:15.720 --> 00:33:19.000
flaws, which we've been talking about
today in the show. I'm your host,
444
00:33:19.039 --> 00:33:22.680
doctor Lee Cortes. So before we
get into some of those provocations,
445
00:33:22.720 --> 00:33:24.359
guys, I really you started.
You cueted it up, Steve, but
446
00:33:24.440 --> 00:33:30.680
I found really compelling in your book
that you offer a hypothesis and you say,
447
00:33:30.720 --> 00:33:36.599
although we can't say this is definitively, our strong hypothesis is that is
448
00:33:36.599 --> 00:33:39.839
that by the time something is triggering
an emotional reaction. It's highly likely that
449
00:33:39.880 --> 00:33:44.160
the trend is at the far end
of the wind stage, when options for
450
00:33:44.240 --> 00:33:47.519
influence are limited. Yeah, it's
got to be one of the most important
451
00:33:47.559 --> 00:33:51.640
parts of your book points in your
book. Well, absolutely, And I
452
00:33:51.680 --> 00:33:54.559
know we're going to We're about to
walk through some of the five different strategies
453
00:33:54.599 --> 00:34:00.640
that leaders can take. The longer
you wait, the more narrow your options
454
00:34:00.720 --> 00:34:06.319
are, and you know you just
have to to some extent jump on board.
455
00:34:06.319 --> 00:34:08.840
I think I think the cord the
cord cutting example is a is a
456
00:34:08.840 --> 00:34:13.519
perfect one. We see there was
an original mover who sort of set the
457
00:34:13.559 --> 00:34:17.440
trend, redefined what it meant to
be a media company, and now we
458
00:34:17.519 --> 00:34:22.320
see a lot of the traditional media
companies entering in UH and trying to compete
459
00:34:22.360 --> 00:34:29.679
with with streaming services, not shaping
the market for streaming services, but effectively
460
00:34:29.760 --> 00:34:35.000
creating their own version of what had
been created before. It's not to say
461
00:34:35.039 --> 00:34:38.280
that that's not it's not possible that
that might be a successful strategy. I
462
00:34:38.320 --> 00:34:42.800
think some of them have a good
chance to compete with the market leader.
463
00:34:44.639 --> 00:34:50.320
However, many probably won't do particularly
well because they're because they're late to the
464
00:34:50.360 --> 00:34:54.880
game. So the earlier you're able
to act, the more degrees of freedom
465
00:34:54.960 --> 00:35:00.440
you have to influence how the market
evolves rather than be a market taker.
466
00:35:01.599 --> 00:35:06.440
Critical point in your book. So
let's talk about these provocations, just briefly
467
00:35:06.480 --> 00:35:08.159
treat them. You do this beautiful
in your in your book. But let's
468
00:35:08.159 --> 00:35:13.039
start with Envision the future that provocation. Sure, yeah, and Alist,
469
00:35:13.719 --> 00:35:15.159
I'll break this down in a way. Maybe I'll handle two of them.
470
00:35:15.199 --> 00:35:21.039
I'll have Steve handle the other three
of the five provocations. But if we
471
00:35:21.079 --> 00:35:23.599
think back to the conversation we had
around the if to when phase change.
472
00:35:23.760 --> 00:35:29.679
Okay, so we think about these
five as existing and excuse me, in
473
00:35:29.800 --> 00:35:34.880
an array, starting with very early
in a trend or very early in the
474
00:35:35.159 --> 00:35:37.440
if phase of really not knowing if
something's going to happen. So, this,
475
00:35:37.440 --> 00:35:43.599
this one you named in vision is
a foundational capability and a foundational foundational
476
00:35:43.639 --> 00:35:47.800
provocation that we argue every organization has
to be using all the time these days.
477
00:35:49.360 --> 00:35:52.800
Historically and buy envision, by the
way, I'll give it its snappy
478
00:35:52.840 --> 00:35:55.159
name in the market, scenario planning
is often the way that it's that it's
479
00:35:55.440 --> 00:36:00.440
referred to. But you know,
historically a lot of companies would roll out
480
00:36:00.480 --> 00:36:02.880
scenario planning every once in a while
in their strategy practice and then put it
481
00:36:02.920 --> 00:36:07.559
away and maybe pay attention to the
scenarios. We think this is a necessary
482
00:36:07.639 --> 00:36:12.480
always on capability these days. What
scenario planning very simply is all about is
483
00:36:12.639 --> 00:36:15.440
And again I mentioned some of this
before having the humility to say, we
484
00:36:15.639 --> 00:36:19.679
don't know what the future is going
to be, and we can't know,
485
00:36:19.920 --> 00:36:22.519
and in fact, if we try
to predict the future, we're going to
486
00:36:22.519 --> 00:36:25.320
get it wrong. So why don't
we instead try to bring into sufficient relief
487
00:36:25.440 --> 00:36:30.719
alternate versions of the future, so
that we can place our bets across those
488
00:36:30.760 --> 00:36:37.119
alternate versions of the future and shift
those bets over time dynamically and continuously in
489
00:36:37.119 --> 00:36:39.280
a way until the future, in
a way where we can position ourselves until
490
00:36:39.320 --> 00:36:45.159
the future starts to reveal itself.
The interesting thing about scenario planning is sometimes
491
00:36:45.199 --> 00:36:49.639
when you look at the challenge head
on, you're going to be able to
492
00:36:49.639 --> 00:36:52.599
see the possibilities. But sometimes you
actually need to look at it with what
493
00:36:52.639 --> 00:36:57.519
I think of as being kind of
a glancing view. So Steve and I
494
00:36:57.559 --> 00:37:02.920
have had some debates over time as
we've talked about how to apply the ideas
495
00:37:02.920 --> 00:37:07.159
and provoke to the real world about
whether or not the pandemic was predictable.
496
00:37:07.559 --> 00:37:10.280
Okay, so and I like to
provoke our audiences and say who called the
497
00:37:10.280 --> 00:37:14.239
pandemic? Who actually named that this
was going to happen? And one of
498
00:37:14.239 --> 00:37:19.760
the interesting things we've discovered is it's
actually very hard to create scenarios that help
499
00:37:19.840 --> 00:37:23.559
you envision the pandemic actually coming to
fruition. But it's easy if you take
500
00:37:23.599 --> 00:37:28.719
a glancing view at the possibility through
the lens of other industries to come up
501
00:37:28.760 --> 00:37:31.079
with a pandemic being a real possibility
so very quickly. What I mean by
502
00:37:31.079 --> 00:37:35.519
that is, if, for example, we had been thinking about the future
503
00:37:35.519 --> 00:37:38.719
of airline travel. Let's say we
had some airline clients or were airline executives
504
00:37:38.719 --> 00:37:44.480
ourselves, and we tried to imagine
what the future might look like for airline
505
00:37:44.679 --> 00:37:47.480
travel. If you do scenario planning
well, then one of the scenarios you
506
00:37:47.599 --> 00:37:52.719
end up with is a massive collapse
in air miles travel. And as you
507
00:37:52.800 --> 00:37:57.519
start to dig into the reasons for
a massive collapse in airlines traveled, one
508
00:37:57.559 --> 00:38:01.360
of the dominant possibilities behind why that
might have happened is the arrival of the
509
00:38:01.400 --> 00:38:06.519
global pandemic. If we had all
been thinking about the world from all our
510
00:38:06.559 --> 00:38:10.480
various different vantage points with a sneric
lens instead of a straightforward linear lens,
511
00:38:10.840 --> 00:38:14.360
my guess is there would have been
a lot more momentum and a lot more
512
00:38:14.400 --> 00:38:19.320
preparation for something like a pandemic taking
hold. So that's what we mean by
513
00:38:19.400 --> 00:38:22.159
the envision provocation, and it comes
very tightly coupled with the second one position,
514
00:38:22.239 --> 00:38:25.159
which I'm happy to talk more about, but let me pause and see
515
00:38:25.159 --> 00:38:30.320
if you have any reactions to that. I thought that was extremely well explained
516
00:38:30.320 --> 00:38:34.000
and very compelling. I don't do
you, Steve, No, I think
517
00:38:34.039 --> 00:38:37.000
we can. We can tackle position
and then get into the three that are
518
00:38:37.000 --> 00:38:40.000
more in the when phase. Okay, okay, so let me keep on
519
00:38:40.119 --> 00:38:45.000
rolling. Then, So envisioning is
all about seeing multiple different versions of the
520
00:38:45.039 --> 00:38:50.239
future. Positioning then, is with
those alternate versions of the future in mind,
521
00:38:50.840 --> 00:38:52.719
as I've said a few times,
spreading your bets in a way where
522
00:38:52.719 --> 00:38:58.000
you're ready to act as the future
starts to reveal itself. And this is
523
00:38:58.079 --> 00:39:01.039
necessarily about I wouldn't call it a
hedging strategy, but you have to be
524
00:39:01.079 --> 00:39:04.679
able to take into account every one
of those futures. And by the way,
525
00:39:04.679 --> 00:39:07.880
there's a for anyone that's not familiar
with scenario planning. There's a simple
526
00:39:07.960 --> 00:39:12.559
rule of thumb that we've come to
learn as scenario planners over time that you
527
00:39:12.599 --> 00:39:15.760
can never have more than four scenarios
to the future. It just gets too
528
00:39:15.840 --> 00:39:20.199
complicated to plan again, So don't
imagine this as a sixteen to twenty twenty
529
00:39:20.239 --> 00:39:24.400
five version of the future massive mathematical
challenge. There's generally for is best practice,
530
00:39:24.719 --> 00:39:28.239
and so what you constantly need to
be doing is saying, how can
531
00:39:28.280 --> 00:39:32.360
I spread my investments and spread,
for example, the type of talent that
532
00:39:32.400 --> 00:39:36.519
I bring into my company and the
type of tests that I run in the
533
00:39:36.519 --> 00:39:40.000
market in a way that account for
all possibilities to the future until I get
534
00:39:40.039 --> 00:39:45.639
more information about how the future is
actually unfolding. If we're constantly envisioning and
535
00:39:45.679 --> 00:39:49.920
positioning, then as we pass through
the phase change or into the phase change
536
00:39:49.920 --> 00:39:53.800
from if to when, then we're
ready to act with purpose, usually as
537
00:39:53.880 --> 00:39:58.679
quickly as possible, to be able
to create the advantage that allows us to
538
00:39:58.679 --> 00:40:02.199
provoke the future that we're at.
And ultimately which of the three which I'll
539
00:40:02.239 --> 00:40:05.760
I'll let Steve talk about in a
moment. But which of the which of
540
00:40:05.760 --> 00:40:08.559
the three we end up choosing will
be a function of how clear a line
541
00:40:08.559 --> 00:40:13.519
of sight we have to the future
we want, how much direct influence we
542
00:40:13.639 --> 00:40:16.519
have over the outcomes of the future, and the degree to which we need
543
00:40:16.559 --> 00:40:20.920
to work with others in an ecosystem
to actually bring about that change, and
544
00:40:20.960 --> 00:40:25.840
that ultimately will impact which of the
which of the three when provocations you you
545
00:40:25.960 --> 00:40:36.639
decide to take action on? Excellent, love it yummy. Yeah, So
546
00:40:37.039 --> 00:40:40.960
you've got three different provocations, and
again these are at the when phase.
547
00:40:42.000 --> 00:40:45.440
I think it's it's let me start
with the least sexy of them, which
548
00:40:45.480 --> 00:40:52.639
is just adapt That's the one where
you've waited too long and you effectively have
549
00:40:52.760 --> 00:40:59.679
no choice but to say the future
is uh here, and I've got a
550
00:40:59.719 --> 00:41:02.760
shift to my business model or I'm
a wind down firm. So this is
551
00:41:04.280 --> 00:41:08.800
the moral equivalent of the local newspaper
finally putting up an online edition. This
552
00:41:08.920 --> 00:41:15.559
is the traditional media company getting into
the streaming business. This is where you've
553
00:41:15.599 --> 00:41:20.280
acted in a You've acted in a
way that the trend is here and now,
554
00:41:20.320 --> 00:41:24.880
instead of shaping how that trend is
coming to fruition, you're effectively trying
555
00:41:24.920 --> 00:41:34.199
to define a segment for yourself in
that particular industry. Again, it's not
556
00:41:34.280 --> 00:41:37.320
necessarily a fatal strategy, but if
you don't adapt, that's sort of like
557
00:41:37.360 --> 00:41:42.519
the last that's sort of like your
last chance. The other two are a
558
00:41:42.519 --> 00:41:46.840
little bit earlier in the phase change, where you have the opportunity to shape
559
00:41:47.079 --> 00:41:51.159
how the future would evolve and how
the trend comes to fruition, so the
560
00:41:51.239 --> 00:41:54.360
roller coasters near at the top,
you can push it and you can change
561
00:41:54.400 --> 00:41:58.199
the direction. Versus an adapt you
just got to get out of the way
562
00:41:58.280 --> 00:42:04.199
or jump on board. So with
drive drive is where you can act early
563
00:42:04.320 --> 00:42:07.800
enough to shape the future. So
you have to think very carefully about what
564
00:42:07.960 --> 00:42:13.440
is the behavior that you want to
cause, either in your customers or in
565
00:42:13.480 --> 00:42:17.280
your company, and very purposefully run
tests to try to see if you can
566
00:42:17.320 --> 00:42:22.960
shape that behavior. So early on
in their existence, for example, Uber
567
00:42:22.440 --> 00:42:30.280
paid to have cars on the road
that would simulate the wait time for their
568
00:42:30.320 --> 00:42:34.440
customers even though demand was relatively low, because they wanted to make sure that
569
00:42:34.840 --> 00:42:39.280
customers had a very positive experience the
first time they went to they went to
570
00:42:39.360 --> 00:42:45.280
Uber, they were driving the market
for righte hailing services. They were shaping
571
00:42:45.360 --> 00:42:50.239
how customers perceived it. They weren't
studying, they weren't asking customers whether they'd
572
00:42:50.239 --> 00:42:52.480
like to be picked up by a
stranger. They were paying to see the
573
00:42:52.559 --> 00:42:59.039
market right. And that's a good
example of what it means to drive.
574
00:43:00.119 --> 00:43:06.159
To drive a provocation. The activate
one is a little more complicated. This
575
00:43:06.199 --> 00:43:09.679
is where perhaps you're a smaller actor, perhaps you don't have a direct line
576
00:43:09.679 --> 00:43:15.880
of sight to your customer, and
you need to work with different partners in
577
00:43:15.400 --> 00:43:20.800
your ecosystem in order to activate it. I like to call activate our bank
578
00:43:20.840 --> 00:43:24.679
shot. So I want to I
want to, for example, in the
579
00:43:24.679 --> 00:43:29.440
book we talk about Mozilla, I
want to activate the developer community, and
580
00:43:29.480 --> 00:43:32.000
I'm going to make my stuff open
open source so that I can get a
581
00:43:32.000 --> 00:43:36.280
different I can change the nature of
the of the marketplace. So that would
582
00:43:36.280 --> 00:43:40.239
be the five provocations at least.
Okay, So thanks Steve, great and
583
00:43:40.280 --> 00:43:43.320
I really appreciate. I was going
to ask you for an example in the
584
00:43:43.360 --> 00:43:45.599
drive change and you brought it right
there with with Uber. That was so
585
00:43:45.679 --> 00:43:47.920
great. And you know it's interesting. I did not know that they paid
586
00:43:49.920 --> 00:43:52.119
drivers to go and simulate those rights
in advance. I had no idea that
587
00:43:52.119 --> 00:43:55.679
existed. That's a great example.
So as I said to you in my
588
00:43:55.760 --> 00:44:00.280
notes, I really was fascinated with
the activate your ecosystem that you talked about,
589
00:44:00.280 --> 00:44:04.239
that the last one you were talking
about, because for me and the
590
00:44:04.280 --> 00:44:06.800
work that I do is, you
know, when I'm working with an organization
591
00:44:06.960 --> 00:44:09.119
and we're going to be working with
all of their stakeholders to be able to
592
00:44:09.119 --> 00:44:15.800
bring everybody on the same page around
their purpose. So to me, that
593
00:44:15.840 --> 00:44:22.440
particular provocation is heavy collaboration. Is
that right? Heavy collaboration and a new
594
00:44:22.440 --> 00:44:25.320
set of muscles, a new set
of skills, and many organizations have had
595
00:44:25.360 --> 00:44:30.599
to use in the past. You
know, it's I think many of us
596
00:44:30.599 --> 00:44:32.480
have been trained to believe that the
more you can control a market, the
597
00:44:32.519 --> 00:44:36.960
more you can actually influence the way
things turn out, the better position you're
598
00:44:37.000 --> 00:44:40.079
going to be, and that has
in time led to a belief system and
599
00:44:40.119 --> 00:44:45.800
a business model that has rewarded big
scaled companies because they're being efficient. We
600
00:44:45.920 --> 00:44:52.360
actually think that we're shifting into it
a time now where scale is not rewarded
601
00:44:52.400 --> 00:44:57.320
with efficiency, or you don't get
to win with scale because you're being efficient.
602
00:44:57.719 --> 00:45:00.079
You get to win with scale because
you learn fast than anyone else in
603
00:45:00.119 --> 00:45:04.840
the market. The faster you can
learn, the more likely you are to
604
00:45:04.880 --> 00:45:07.679
be able to send the right signals
out to other players in the market,
605
00:45:07.840 --> 00:45:12.599
or to use information to your advantage
and to get others to play with you.
606
00:45:12.880 --> 00:45:15.519
And it's actually, it's really interesting
to see some of the ecosystem plays
607
00:45:15.519 --> 00:45:19.719
that are emerging in a whole variety
of different fields. I do a lot
608
00:45:19.719 --> 00:45:23.159
of work and energy these days,
but it's actually some of the smaller and
609
00:45:23.440 --> 00:45:29.599
what you would think of as being
less influential companies who are activating and assembling
610
00:45:29.639 --> 00:45:32.679
the ecosystems in order to enact change
as we move through an energy transition.
611
00:45:32.840 --> 00:45:37.480
And my guess is we're going to
increasingly see that the ecosystem mindset, which
612
00:45:37.599 --> 00:45:43.519
in some ways comes more naturally to
disruptors and entrepreneurs, is something that we
613
00:45:43.559 --> 00:45:46.440
need to teach large scaled companies as
well. Yeah, I'd like to see
614
00:45:46.559 --> 00:45:51.199
a lot more of that education happening
much earlier in our educational system. That
615
00:45:51.239 --> 00:45:53.920
would be amazing. Managine what you
do with that. So, guys,
616
00:45:53.960 --> 00:45:58.000
what have we've done? You We've
already gotten, We've already gone through almost
617
00:45:58.000 --> 00:46:00.159
a whole hour together. We've come
to the end of the show, and
618
00:46:00.199 --> 00:46:02.079
so you know, this show is
listen to my people all over the world,
619
00:46:02.159 --> 00:46:05.519
and the whole idea here is to
be able. People come to the
620
00:46:05.559 --> 00:46:08.079
show because they want to learn how
to create workplaces where people actually want to
621
00:46:08.079 --> 00:46:12.039
come. They want to understand how
to become inspirational leaders who bring people to
622
00:46:12.079 --> 00:46:15.960
their best and how to do business
that betters the world. What would you
623
00:46:15.039 --> 00:46:21.400
each like to leave them with,
Well, maybe I'll start and then Jeff
624
00:46:21.440 --> 00:46:25.880
can pile on. I would say
increasingly, and I think the pandemic brought
625
00:46:25.880 --> 00:46:32.000
this into focus. I believe it's
going to be harder and harder and harder
626
00:46:32.000 --> 00:46:38.320
for people to separate their work life
and their personal life. And we just
627
00:46:38.760 --> 00:46:45.599
need to treat each other as total
humans and understand everything that we're dealing with.
628
00:46:45.639 --> 00:46:50.400
And we all have very different and
we all have very different situations,
629
00:46:50.400 --> 00:46:57.360
and so there's got to be a
respect for the human condition that employers need
630
00:46:57.400 --> 00:47:02.920
to have that create a precondition for
people to feel like they're bringing their entire
631
00:47:04.000 --> 00:47:07.880
cells to the workplace, because people
are going to increasingly make decisions on where
632
00:47:07.920 --> 00:47:12.119
they work based on how they feel
about it. And I think that's some
633
00:47:12.159 --> 00:47:14.760
of your work at least, that
you want people to feel like they have
634
00:47:14.800 --> 00:47:17.280
a purpose. The fact, I
think one of the most foundational things that
635
00:47:17.360 --> 00:47:22.360
you can do to bring that purpose
is allow people to be who they are,
636
00:47:22.400 --> 00:47:27.039
and you'll get by that nature,
you'll get a better and more diverse
637
00:47:27.079 --> 00:47:31.079
workplace. Completely agree Jeff. And
there's a critical aspect of what Steve is
638
00:47:31.119 --> 00:47:37.239
saying that is central to our book
hypothesis, and that is that you need
639
00:47:37.800 --> 00:47:42.880
more and more different people and in
order to create the type of environment that
640
00:47:43.039 --> 00:47:46.119
is going to create the condition to
win moving forward. It's a very simple
641
00:47:47.320 --> 00:47:52.199
action to remove the organizational blinders that
we talked about before. That involves in
642
00:47:52.320 --> 00:47:58.880
gendering cognitive diversity, and the way
you get cognitive diversity is through actual diversity,
643
00:47:59.039 --> 00:48:01.280
and importantly, on top of diversity, inclusion of all the voices that
644
00:48:01.320 --> 00:48:07.320
you invite into that community to be
part of their natural selves or their whole
645
00:48:07.360 --> 00:48:10.840
selves. As Steve says, it's
a very simple maneuver and it's got proven
646
00:48:10.880 --> 00:48:15.840
results. It's really difficult to pull
off, in part because of all the
647
00:48:15.079 --> 00:48:19.320
old playbooks of the past that I
talked about before. I think, I
648
00:48:19.320 --> 00:48:22.119
think what I What I end on
though, is a is a quote that
649
00:48:23.079 --> 00:48:27.880
I repeat as often as I can. I won't tell you the source of
650
00:48:27.880 --> 00:48:30.400
the quote, or maybe I will. It's me. I made up this
651
00:48:30.480 --> 00:48:35.039
quote, but I like it as
of not just as that sounds. And
652
00:48:35.079 --> 00:48:40.599
that is meet uncertainty with curiosity and
a bias for action instead of worry and
653
00:48:40.639 --> 00:48:45.280
a bias for analysis. If we
can instill that in everyone listening right now,
654
00:48:45.360 --> 00:48:50.639
then will be in a better place. Great way to finish. Jeff,
655
00:48:50.639 --> 00:48:52.440
Thank you, guys. I'm so
glad to know you both, and
656
00:48:52.480 --> 00:48:53.840
now that we're connected, you can
run, but you can't hide from me.
657
00:48:54.159 --> 00:48:57.679
Thanks for being on working on purpose. It's been great to have you.
658
00:48:58.360 --> 00:49:00.960
Thanks for having us a lease fun
look forward to having that cocktail at
659
00:49:00.960 --> 00:49:06.079
some point. Right absolutely, New
York City, here I come. So
660
00:49:06.119 --> 00:49:08.440
if you'll learn more about Jef Tuff, Steve Goldback and the book or the
661
00:49:08.440 --> 00:49:12.920
work that they're doing, you can
start by just googling Provoke the book and
662
00:49:12.960 --> 00:49:15.840
what you're going to find is the
book on Amazon and then probably a Deloitte
663
00:49:15.840 --> 00:49:19.440
page. And thanks again to our
partnering sponsor, work Proud, which helps
664
00:49:19.440 --> 00:49:22.679
companies build a platform where your workforce
receives meaningful feedback and thanks for their work
665
00:49:22.719 --> 00:49:25.960
from people across your company. Last
week, if you missed the live show,
666
00:49:27.000 --> 00:49:29.880
you can always catch it be recorded
podcast. We are on the Samuel
667
00:49:29.920 --> 00:49:32.320
Cook, who's the co founder and
CEO of Sanity Desk, talking about how
668
00:49:32.320 --> 00:49:36.679
to build a better digital world.
Next week, we'll be on the air
669
00:49:36.719 --> 00:49:40.519
with authors Rabbi Malka Drucker and Najack
Gross talking about their book and the work
670
00:49:40.599 --> 00:49:45.000
they're doing to help people move from
aging to saging in the second half of
671
00:49:45.039 --> 00:49:47.000
life. See you there, mum
networks at least of our life. So
672
00:49:47.159 --> 00:49:57.119
let's work on purpose. We hope
you've enjoyed this week's program. Be sure
673
00:49:57.159 --> 00:50:00.480
to tune in too. Working on
Purpose featuring your home post doctor Elise Cortes
674
00:50:00.760 --> 00:50:06.840
each week on the Voice America Empowerment
Channel. Together, we'll create a world
675
00:50:06.920 --> 00:50:14.440
where business operates conscientiously, leadership inspires
impassioned performance, and employees are fulfilled in
676
00:50:14.519 --> 00:50:19.320
work that provides the meaning and purpose
they crave. See you there, Let's
677
00:50:19.480 --> 00:50:20.440
work on Purpose.





















































