WEBVTT
1
00:00:00.160 --> 00:00:02.439
The topics and opinions express in the following show are
2
00:00:02.439 --> 00:00:04.080
solely those of the hosts and their guests and not
3
00:00:04.120 --> 00:00:07.000
those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We
4
00:00:07.080 --> 00:00:10.160
make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
5
00:00:10.199 --> 00:00:12.519
or products mentioned on air or on our web. No
6
00:00:12.640 --> 00:00:15.199
liability explicit or implies shall be extended to W four
7
00:00:15.240 --> 00:00:18.000
CY Radio or it's employees are affiliates. Any questions or
8
00:00:18.039 --> 00:00:20.480
comments should be directed to those show hosts. Thank you
9
00:00:20.480 --> 00:00:25.559
for choosing W FOURCY Radio.
10
00:00:28.280 --> 00:00:31.679
What's working on Purpose? Anyway? Each week we ponder the
11
00:00:31.719 --> 00:00:34.880
answer to this question. People ache for meaning and purpose
12
00:00:34.920 --> 00:00:38.280
at work, to contribute their talents passionately and know their
13
00:00:38.320 --> 00:00:41.679
lives really matter. They crave being part of an organization
14
00:00:41.759 --> 00:00:44.479
that inspires them and helps them grow into realizing their
15
00:00:44.560 --> 00:00:47.600
highest potential. Business can be such a force for good
16
00:00:47.640 --> 00:00:51.280
in the world, elevating humanity. In our program, we provide
17
00:00:51.280 --> 00:00:54.320
guidance and inspiration to help usher in this world we
18
00:00:54.359 --> 00:00:58.679
all want Working on Purpose. Now, here's your host, doctor
19
00:00:58.679 --> 00:00:59.759
Elise Cortez.
20
00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:07.200
Welcome back to the Working on Purpose program, which has
21
00:01:07.200 --> 00:01:09.159
been brought to with passion and pride since February of
22
00:01:09.159 --> 00:01:11.799
twenty fifteen. Thanks Tondian this week. Great to have you.
23
00:01:12.239 --> 00:01:14.359
I'm your host, doctor Elise corre Test. If we've not
24
00:01:14.439 --> 00:01:16.480
met before and you don't know me, I'm an organizational
25
00:01:16.519 --> 00:01:20.319
psychologist to management consultant, lebal therapist, speaker and author. My
26
00:01:20.400 --> 00:01:22.439
team and I at Gusta Now help companies to enliven
27
00:01:22.480 --> 00:01:25.599
and fortify their operations by building a dynamic, high performance
28
00:01:25.640 --> 00:01:29.120
culture and inspirational leadership activated by meaning and purpose. Did
29
00:01:29.159 --> 00:01:32.079
you know that inspired employees outperform their satisfied peers by
30
00:01:32.120 --> 00:01:34.400
a factor of two point twenty five two one. In
31
00:01:34.400 --> 00:01:37.159
other words, inspiration is good for the bottom line. You
32
00:01:37.200 --> 00:01:38.560
can learn more about us and how we can work
33
00:01:38.560 --> 00:01:41.599
together at gusto dashnow dot com or my personal site
34
00:01:41.599 --> 00:01:45.239
at leascore test dot com. Now getting today's program we
35
00:01:45.280 --> 00:01:48.000
have with us to Neil Miller a seasoned executive management
36
00:01:48.040 --> 00:01:52.640
consultant and organizational psychologist specializing in transformation, organizational effectiveness, and
37
00:01:52.760 --> 00:01:56.640
human performance. She is passionate about creating thriving ecosystems where
38
00:01:56.640 --> 00:01:59.599
businesses succeed because people are empowered to do their best
39
00:01:59.599 --> 00:02:02.719
work of lives. She's the author of the Flourishing Effect
40
00:02:03.040 --> 00:02:06.239
unlocking employee thriving as your competitive Advantage, which is a
41
00:02:06.239 --> 00:02:09.919
playbook for cultivating an environment where engagement, agility, and high
42
00:02:09.919 --> 00:02:13.199
performance thrive. We'll be talking about various aspects from her book,
43
00:02:13.240 --> 00:02:17.120
including learning from history to create companies and work experiences
44
00:02:17.120 --> 00:02:20.800
that inspire rather than repel, the disconnect from the perspective
45
00:02:21.000 --> 00:02:23.240
of those in the workforce, and what work feels like
46
00:02:23.319 --> 00:02:26.639
for most people, and how companies and leaders can rise
47
00:02:26.680 --> 00:02:30.039
to meet the needs of today's evolved workforce while succeeding mightily.
48
00:02:30.319 --> 00:02:32.319
She judges us from New York to Neil, Welcome to
49
00:02:32.360 --> 00:02:33.120
Working on Purpose.
50
00:02:33.719 --> 00:02:34.680
Thank you for having me.
51
00:02:34.879 --> 00:02:36.639
It's great to have you. As I told you, we
52
00:02:36.719 --> 00:02:39.599
are really quite quite aligned. And I loved every single
53
00:02:39.719 --> 00:02:42.719
last word of your book. So excited to help bring
54
00:02:42.759 --> 00:02:46.360
this to our listeners and viewers. First, I got to
55
00:02:46.400 --> 00:02:49.719
start by saying, I just so your introduction to Neil
56
00:02:49.800 --> 00:02:52.159
is one of the best introductions I've ever read in
57
00:02:52.199 --> 00:02:54.319
a book. I was so excited to inspire by it.
58
00:02:54.719 --> 00:02:57.000
So let's let this secret into our listeners and viewers
59
00:02:57.039 --> 00:03:01.560
as well. You open with a fascinating historical account of
60
00:03:01.599 --> 00:03:04.800
the Black Plague and the Italian Renaissance, and then you
61
00:03:04.879 --> 00:03:08.199
situate it's parallel in our COVID pandemic and the promise
62
00:03:08.240 --> 00:03:10.319
of today's world of work. So let's start there.
63
00:03:11.199 --> 00:03:13.560
Yes, thank you so much, first of all for having me.
64
00:03:13.599 --> 00:03:17.240
I've been excited about this since we first chatted. So
65
00:03:17.400 --> 00:03:20.199
the thing is is, I'm always listening to podcasts like
66
00:03:20.280 --> 00:03:22.280
this one, like others, like a lot of us are.
67
00:03:22.439 --> 00:03:24.280
And when I was writing the book, I was listening
68
00:03:24.280 --> 00:03:27.360
to this podcast about the Renaissance, and I noticed the
69
00:03:27.400 --> 00:03:30.360
parallels right away between the society at that point in
70
00:03:30.479 --> 00:03:33.599
time emerging from the Black Plague in our recent pandemic,
71
00:03:33.719 --> 00:03:37.080
and the more that I dove in I started to
72
00:03:37.120 --> 00:03:39.599
research it, and I just was seeing all these again,
73
00:03:39.639 --> 00:03:42.159
all these parallels and understanding that what was taking place
74
00:03:42.199 --> 00:03:44.439
at that time across the world. It seemed like there
75
00:03:44.439 --> 00:03:47.479
were so many similarities and which really led to an
76
00:03:47.520 --> 00:03:50.560
inspiring result. Right, So the Renaissance obviously so much talent,
77
00:03:50.680 --> 00:03:53.479
so much innovation, and things happened during that time, and
78
00:03:53.520 --> 00:03:56.039
I thought, gosh, what a really great interesting message that
79
00:03:56.080 --> 00:03:57.960
we can tie the parallels to what they did at
80
00:03:58.000 --> 00:04:01.240
the end of the plague before the Renaissance, and we
81
00:04:01.240 --> 00:04:03.280
can tie those parallels to maybe give us some hope
82
00:04:03.319 --> 00:04:05.319
in this moment right when we're emerging from the pandemic
83
00:04:05.360 --> 00:04:07.639
when I wrote this about two years ago, So in
84
00:04:07.680 --> 00:04:09.599
many ways, this moment is similar as I talk about
85
00:04:09.639 --> 00:04:11.800
in the book in the sense that you know, at
86
00:04:11.840 --> 00:04:15.800
that time, society had really outgrown those old institutions, old beliefs,
87
00:04:15.919 --> 00:04:18.759
old ways of being, yet it was really stuck in
88
00:04:18.839 --> 00:04:21.240
kind of this this moment, this morass right from the
89
00:04:21.279 --> 00:04:24.319
Black Plague, which had halted commerce and travel and learning
90
00:04:24.319 --> 00:04:25.759
and innovation. So it was kind of like in this
91
00:04:25.879 --> 00:04:28.800
stuck point, kind of like in that liminal stage, right
92
00:04:28.839 --> 00:04:30.160
And I feel like right when we came out of
93
00:04:30.160 --> 00:04:32.399
the pandemic when I wrote this, it's like we kind
94
00:04:32.439 --> 00:04:34.439
of were in a similar point in time where it's like, well,
95
00:04:34.480 --> 00:04:36.800
we're definitely not in Kansas anymore, but we don't know
96
00:04:36.839 --> 00:04:38.600
where we're going to be next. And so I kind
97
00:04:38.600 --> 00:04:40.800
of wanted to pull these parallels and then say, hey,
98
00:04:41.240 --> 00:04:43.920
by the way, this has happened before, let's take some
99
00:04:44.000 --> 00:04:45.839
lessons from the past. And I thought it was great
100
00:04:45.839 --> 00:04:47.959
to pull on what the Medici family did at that
101
00:04:48.040 --> 00:04:50.639
point in time when they rose to power, because they
102
00:04:50.639 --> 00:04:55.920
did that through really anticipating and fostering that environment that nurtured,
103
00:04:56.000 --> 00:04:59.360
empowered and inspired those great talent of the Renaissance. So
104
00:04:59.399 --> 00:05:01.519
I thought, wow, well that's pretty cool. Why don't we
105
00:05:01.600 --> 00:05:03.839
apply that to our modern environment? Right, these are some
106
00:05:04.000 --> 00:05:05.839
things that leaders can actually do. And as I really
107
00:05:05.879 --> 00:05:08.480
research like some of the things that they did, that gosh,
108
00:05:08.519 --> 00:05:10.439
that's a lot of what I'm talking about in this book.
109
00:05:10.439 --> 00:05:12.920
It's a lot of that meeting the human needs aspects.
110
00:05:12.959 --> 00:05:14.360
So that's really where I got.
111
00:05:14.120 --> 00:05:16.879
That beautiful toil, great way to open. I was so
112
00:05:16.959 --> 00:05:19.399
inspired by that story, and I love when we can
113
00:05:19.439 --> 00:05:21.560
go back in history and learn from that. And I
114
00:05:21.600 --> 00:05:24.120
think that is a very powerful opening for our listeners
115
00:05:24.160 --> 00:05:26.399
and viewers anyone who reads your book, because when you
116
00:05:26.439 --> 00:05:30.199
see what happened from that, I think that that opens something.
117
00:05:30.560 --> 00:05:33.120
It helps us maybe get unstuck from how we're clinging
118
00:05:33.160 --> 00:05:36.160
to our old ways of doing things and see possibilities
119
00:05:36.160 --> 00:05:39.920
that are really, really grand. And that's what I want too. Yeah, Okay,
120
00:05:40.000 --> 00:05:41.439
so I want to talk a little bit about just
121
00:05:41.480 --> 00:05:44.360
really how it is that you are on this journey yourself.
122
00:05:44.399 --> 00:05:48.560
Why aren't you in accounting or architecture. You've chosen this
123
00:05:48.639 --> 00:05:52.800
particular path, so why this background, Why this kind of
124
00:05:52.839 --> 00:05:54.759
work and why this journey you're taking us on.
125
00:05:55.879 --> 00:05:57.959
Yeah, I mean, like a lot of folks, I grew
126
00:05:58.040 --> 00:05:59.759
up with a single parent, and for the most part,
127
00:06:00.160 --> 00:06:03.240
basically grew up a single mom, and she juggled, you know,
128
00:06:03.319 --> 00:06:05.079
for the most of my life, two to three jobs
129
00:06:05.079 --> 00:06:07.480
at a time to make ends meet. And so watching
130
00:06:07.480 --> 00:06:10.000
that as a little girl and really observing how much
131
00:06:10.000 --> 00:06:12.199
time and energy that took away from her and from
132
00:06:12.240 --> 00:06:15.160
me as a child and my brother, basically I kind
133
00:06:15.160 --> 00:06:16.439
of just I didn't like it, and I was like,
134
00:06:16.480 --> 00:06:18.600
that just seems weird, that doesn't seem how it should be.
135
00:06:18.759 --> 00:06:20.399
And you know, ever since that time, I kind of
136
00:06:20.439 --> 00:06:23.800
became acutely aware of how work had dominated most people's lives,
137
00:06:23.839 --> 00:06:25.600
not just hers, but most people, no matter what type
138
00:06:25.600 --> 00:06:27.759
of work it was, and also how rare it was
139
00:06:27.800 --> 00:06:29.920
that somebody would say, Wow, I love my job. I
140
00:06:29.920 --> 00:06:31.759
love what I'm doing. And so I kind of always
141
00:06:31.800 --> 00:06:33.199
had that in the back of my mind growing up.
142
00:06:33.279 --> 00:06:35.160
And then I thought, there's got to be a way
143
00:06:35.199 --> 00:06:38.399
to fix this, right, because work takes so much time, energy, lifeblood,
144
00:06:38.560 --> 00:06:40.360
et cetera, away from all of us. And so I
145
00:06:40.439 --> 00:06:42.439
kind of started thinking, well, this is a really big
146
00:06:42.480 --> 00:06:44.319
problem to solve. We all, for the most part, have
147
00:06:44.399 --> 00:06:46.600
to work. So I started out, you know, as a researcher,
148
00:06:46.639 --> 00:06:50.040
as a management consultant and iopsychologists and coach for these
149
00:06:50.040 --> 00:06:52.680
companies trying to kind of figure out like what is
150
00:06:52.720 --> 00:06:56.040
it that makes work so terrible in many cases? Right?
151
00:06:56.079 --> 00:06:58.079
Like why? Why is it bad when it's bad? And
152
00:06:58.120 --> 00:06:59.480
why is it good when it's good? And so I
153
00:06:59.480 --> 00:07:01.319
always was kind of leading with that and picking up
154
00:07:01.319 --> 00:07:03.160
pieces of the puzzle as I went along of like,
155
00:07:03.439 --> 00:07:06.680
you know, employee well being and employee engagement and leadership
156
00:07:06.759 --> 00:07:09.040
and change management, all these different things that I see
157
00:07:09.079 --> 00:07:11.199
as really kind of different pieces of the puzzle or
158
00:07:11.240 --> 00:07:13.720
the system and how they work together and when they work,
159
00:07:13.920 --> 00:07:15.639
they work, and they do some amazing things that I
160
00:07:15.680 --> 00:07:17.560
know we're going to talk about and when they don't work,
161
00:07:17.680 --> 00:07:19.480
they don't work, and we're going to talk about those
162
00:07:19.480 --> 00:07:21.920
things as well. And picking up those pieces as I
163
00:07:21.920 --> 00:07:24.600
went along, I decide, Wow, this is really fascinating, and
164
00:07:24.639 --> 00:07:26.079
a lot of people don't get it. Like we all
165
00:07:26.079 --> 00:07:28.399
know that we have our gripes about work or somebody's
166
00:07:28.480 --> 00:07:30.879
like the lucky person and I love my job, but
167
00:07:30.920 --> 00:07:32.439
we don't really know why that is, and so I
168
00:07:32.480 --> 00:07:34.120
really wanted to dig into that in this book.
169
00:07:35.439 --> 00:07:36.959
I love it very similar. I grew up on a
170
00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:40.120
farm with farmers who I was raised with the idea
171
00:07:40.160 --> 00:07:42.839
that work as a noble thing. It's the way that
172
00:07:42.879 --> 00:07:44.800
we go through life. It is what we do in
173
00:07:44.839 --> 00:07:47.279
service of our life. It's not something we had to
174
00:07:47.319 --> 00:07:50.759
slog through. And two, I noticed that's part of my
175
00:07:50.800 --> 00:07:53.279
research too. Is part of the reason I started hosting
176
00:07:53.279 --> 00:07:55.720
the show is I wanted people to know that people
177
00:07:55.800 --> 00:07:58.120
could actually really be passionate about what they do for work.
178
00:07:58.120 --> 00:08:00.959
And that's how it started ten years ago anyway. So
179
00:08:01.319 --> 00:08:06.480
such such strong parallels to Neil. So you know you
180
00:08:06.519 --> 00:08:09.040
and I know this because we're researching. We talk about this,
181
00:08:09.160 --> 00:08:12.680
but it's so hard for people to understand how much
182
00:08:12.759 --> 00:08:15.040
the ways of working for so many people aren't working.
183
00:08:15.040 --> 00:08:17.040
And you have some very interesting stats in the book
184
00:08:17.079 --> 00:08:19.040
that I think even if we just share a few
185
00:08:19.079 --> 00:08:21.399
of those, it will help our listeners and viewers understand
186
00:08:21.399 --> 00:08:23.720
the gravity of the problem. Can you share a few
187
00:08:23.720 --> 00:08:24.279
of them?
188
00:08:24.839 --> 00:08:27.360
Yeah? Absolutely. So we get into a lot of research
189
00:08:27.399 --> 00:08:30.800
in this book because just like you, you got to ground
190
00:08:30.800 --> 00:08:32.240
it in the research. And I think It's helpful too,
191
00:08:32.240 --> 00:08:34.440
because when you read it, if people are HR practitioners
192
00:08:34.440 --> 00:08:37.080
are managers, it's always helpful to ground whatever you're trying
193
00:08:37.120 --> 00:08:39.080
to do in your organization or tell your leader you
194
00:08:39.120 --> 00:08:41.360
should do grounded in the data. We know that that's
195
00:08:41.440 --> 00:08:43.240
kind of the door into doing what you want to do.
196
00:08:43.440 --> 00:08:46.120
So I think a couple of things that really come
197
00:08:46.120 --> 00:08:47.799
to mind is just when you think about, like how
198
00:08:47.799 --> 00:08:50.759
the old formulas you know, don't work anymore. I think
199
00:08:50.759 --> 00:08:52.720
a lot of organizations kind of what's not working is
200
00:08:52.720 --> 00:08:55.039
that they're trying to apply these old ways of thinking
201
00:08:55.120 --> 00:08:58.159
that we're you know, really BUILTNDRED one hundred and fifty
202
00:08:58.200 --> 00:09:01.039
years ago, back on the factory floors, and even before that,
203
00:09:01.200 --> 00:09:03.440
you're trying to still apply those ways of thinking to
204
00:09:03.759 --> 00:09:07.399
the current environment, which really presents I think, kind of
205
00:09:07.399 --> 00:09:10.600
a distorted experience or a distorted reality for people that
206
00:09:10.639 --> 00:09:13.240
are in the workplace. And so that's one of the
207
00:09:13.240 --> 00:09:15.159
things just to keep that in mind is your back pocket.
208
00:09:15.200 --> 00:09:17.919
But then also I think when you think about some
209
00:09:18.000 --> 00:09:20.919
of these operating from the outdated social contract, right, So
210
00:09:21.000 --> 00:09:23.720
I think we all are pretty aware that the days
211
00:09:23.720 --> 00:09:27.320
when people dedicated their careers to a single organization and
212
00:09:27.360 --> 00:09:30.759
in return, they got predictable raises, bonuses, and a pension.
213
00:09:30.919 --> 00:09:33.320
I think we all know that that's kind of gone. Unfortunately,
214
00:09:33.360 --> 00:09:35.679
that's not really happening anymore because there's no pensions. For
215
00:09:35.720 --> 00:09:39.240
the most part, wages are underwhelming. Companies are perfectly comfortable
216
00:09:39.279 --> 00:09:41.320
laying people off as soon as their profits dip below
217
00:09:41.360 --> 00:09:44.039
a certain margin. And so I think that because that
218
00:09:44.120 --> 00:09:46.919
contract isn't valid anymore, but yet we're still operating from that,
219
00:09:46.960 --> 00:09:49.639
I think that also causes a real kind of riff
220
00:09:49.720 --> 00:09:51.879
and like the reality of like what are we doing here?
221
00:09:52.120 --> 00:09:53.720
And so I think there's some of those just different
222
00:09:53.759 --> 00:09:57.080
pieces kind of like the foundational level. So those are
223
00:09:57.120 --> 00:09:59.120
just things to kind of kick us off with. And
224
00:09:59.159 --> 00:10:02.279
then that's even pre pandemic, right and then now coming
225
00:10:02.279 --> 00:10:04.000
out of the pandemic, I mean, it's obviously been a
226
00:10:04.000 --> 00:10:06.759
while now, but essentially leaders, as we're seeing in the media,
227
00:10:06.840 --> 00:10:09.720
are now again continuing for five years trying to force
228
00:10:09.799 --> 00:10:12.480
people to you know, return to the office and do
229
00:10:12.519 --> 00:10:14.399
all these things, and we're just like, guys, we're not
230
00:10:14.519 --> 00:10:16.879
there anymore. You know, it wasn't working leading up to
231
00:10:16.919 --> 00:10:19.600
the pandemic, and now it's definitely not working. We're definitely
232
00:10:19.600 --> 00:10:21.759
in a new world. We know we can work differently,
233
00:10:21.799 --> 00:10:24.440
We've proved it that kind of thing, and because leaders
234
00:10:24.480 --> 00:10:27.039
aren't adapting to that, I think that that's us all
235
00:10:27.639 --> 00:10:30.279
obviously also kind of causing a rift there as well
236
00:10:30.320 --> 00:10:31.159
with folks.
237
00:10:32.559 --> 00:10:34.320
Which we're going to dive more into as well and
238
00:10:34.919 --> 00:10:37.399
after the break in the second segment. But I also
239
00:10:37.440 --> 00:10:39.759
want to point out something that's really really important that
240
00:10:39.759 --> 00:10:41.879
I think are on the serce and viewers really need
241
00:10:41.879 --> 00:10:44.200
to understand. That's so important of your book, and you
242
00:10:44.240 --> 00:10:47.799
talk about it's the march toward irrelevancy and non existence. Right,
243
00:10:47.840 --> 00:10:51.519
So these when you when you embrace these old ways