[00:00:00] Speaker A: This is where smart business conversations meet real world experience, where strategies are shared, lessons are learned, and ideas come to life. I'm Emily Galindo, and you're watching Biz Talk, your destination for real insight from the mind shaping tomorrow's business world only on NOW Media Television.
Welcome to Biz Talk. I'm your host, Emily Galindo. And today we are diving deep into one of the biggest challenges leaders face. Maintaining a strong company culture amidst constant change. Our guest, Douglas Wick, is a business coach, broadcaster, and executive with more than 40 years of experience guiding companies through transformation. As the founder of Positioning Systems and a certified E Myth and Gazelles coach, he's helped over 250 organizations strengthen their leadership and strategies. Doug's personal story is just as powerful as. As a survivor of acute myeloid leukemia, he brings unmatched resilience and perspective to the world of business and coaching. So please welcome my guest, Doug Wick.
Hey, Doug. How are you? Welcome to the show.
[00:01:10] Speaker B: I'm unbelievable. Emily, thank you for that amazing introduction. Absolutely.
[00:01:15] Speaker A: I mean, that does.
[00:01:17] Speaker B: Want to listen.
Thank you. Sorry.
[00:01:21] Speaker A: So 250 businesses, I'm assuming that none of them went through any kind of change whatsoever.
[00:01:28] Speaker B: Oh, no, no. None of them ever had to change.
Some of them right from the beginning. Yeah.
[00:01:35] Speaker A: Right. I mean, I think that's probably if I'm in business as well. And we talk to a lot of coaches and people, business owners on this show, but I think that's the only constant thing in business is that it constantly changes.
[00:01:47] Speaker B: Yes, I would agree.
[00:01:49] Speaker A: So that brings us to why you are here to help us with that, which is many in our audience who are, especially right now with AI and the economy and all of the things that are constantly changing.
We would love to know what is culture a pinpoint of helping it maintain business during those changes.
[00:02:13] Speaker B: Yeah, culture, I think.
Remember who the author is. But somebody's written a book that culture eats strategy for breakfast. And that's very true from the standpoint that if you. You can have a great strategy, but if you don't have the culture or the people that are going to execute it properly, the strategy is worthless. So I hope that answers your question.
[00:02:42] Speaker A: It. It does, but do I. Have you ever seen the culture break down during change? I mean, or.
You know, we thought. We think we have a great culture and we think we have all of these good people in place, and then we implement something new into the process, into that strategy, and it all just kind of falls apart.
[00:03:02] Speaker B: Yeah. Forgive me, I didn't hear that. Part of the question, Yeah, I think that there's nothing more that tests the culture than change.
And a lot of times, you know, people fear change.
The businesses, business people and the, the employees fear change. And so it becomes an obstacle. And unless the, the people on both sides understand the benefit of the change and usually that starts with the employees. The people that are going to have to make the change and adapt to the change need to understand what's in it for them, what's the value, why are we doing this, what's the outcome going to be and how is this going to make my situation better? And if they don't, and I fear too often that's not what, that's not what's happening is that the business leaders don't communicate why they're making the change.
Maybe because maybe they're fearful themselves, but for whatever reason that doesn't happen. It increases the fear level and it provides resistance even in a really good culture. So that's the main thing. I've had a number of companies that have struggled with that and the idea really comes down to when you're going to make a change, bring the people in that are going to be affected by it. Sometimes they can understand and generate ideas to help improve the metamorphosis of the change and that transformation simply because they're right there in the tactical operations. And I think too often management, the leaders don't take into account how valuable a resource they have in the people in their business in determining and making change smooth in their organization.
[00:05:05] Speaker A: I couldn't agree with you more. I've seen that time and time and I've even said that as an employee before, like if you would just go down to the, to the ground level and ask us, we are happy to tell you how to improve the business. And from, in terms of a change management perspective, you know, maybe because they do the day to day, they can see obstacles or roadblocks into implementing this grand scheme team if you would just ask them how is this going to impact or what roadblocks might we encounter so that we can be proactive about solving them versus forcing it through, if you will.
[00:05:42] Speaker B: I was, I'm reading a really good book this past week. It's called Big Potential and in it they cite that Toyota, one of the most successful organizations in the world. They have a, a motto.
I'm trying to think of what you might call it, but it's go to the source. So anytime they are looking at making changes, that's what they do. They go to the actual Site or the location, the tactical area where the change is going to take place and they get information from those people in that area in the, you know, from the source to discover how to make those changes. And so that's exactly what organizations need to do. And then both people are working toward the same end.
I think when you don't tell people, you don't give them an idea of what the outcome is and why you're doing it, particularly the why it's difficult to get their buy in. And then there's going to be conflict or resistance to that change.
[00:06:49] Speaker A: Absolutely. So I mean to recap, and I've heard that quoted from a book as well, I don't remember the author, but understanding the why behind the what. Right. If.
[00:06:57] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:06:57] Speaker A: And making sure that everybody understands that. So versus the authoritarian coming from on top, on high. We're doing this come.
Come hell or high water. That's not going to create now good culture in the business. Right?
[00:07:13] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. The author is Simon Sinek.
[00:07:16] Speaker A: I think that you're thinking the why behind the what?
[00:07:18] Speaker B: Yes, yeah, start with why.
[00:07:22] Speaker A: Yes. Thank you. Thank you.
So aside from conveying, I mean, we could from, from the front of the room or from the front of the top of the organization say the why, is there a step that you coach your business leaders through in terms of making it more personal than just a formal announcement with all this energy, or is there a practice of really pulling people in and helping them get that buy in?
[00:07:49] Speaker B: You know, how I would handle it and, and everybody's different.
I feel like one of my strengths is a personal relationship with the people that I work with. So I would actually have individual meetings with the people that are going to be affected by the change and you know, before even indicating what the benefits are and what the outcome is going to be, get their feedback, we're going to get, you know, get them involved in the process so that they actually feel like they're part of the solution, not part of the we. Oh, we got to change you. That's what I think is the resistance is what were we doing? Was I doing something wrong? No, you, you obviously you hopefully work. But the truth is if you can just meet with them individually and tell them what's coming up, but get their input and their feedback, things are going to go so much more smoothly.
[00:08:54] Speaker A: Absolutely. Yeah. So getting to doing more of a one on one at least with your middle management. Right. And your leaders that are in that position to be able to get more duplicating yourself. Right. More people excited if you can get them enrolled, then they can get their, their teams enrolled. If you're on a larger corporation, what would you say is one of the core values that leaders need to lean on in today to help anchor those people? I mean, through, through that process?
[00:09:23] Speaker B: Well, integrity comes to mind because the, the whole process of change, if you're not revealing what's going on and you're not being honest with yourself and with your team, you're probably somebody is going to notice that it's. Our thoughts are broadcasts of the soul, not secrets of the brain. Kind ones bring us happiness, petty ones untold pain. And if you're, if you're, if you believe that, and I think most of us maybe don't. No. You know, that poem or, or whatever the, the point is, is that if you're tr. If you're not being transparent with your people, you're going to feel that again. That's going to build resistance. So just be frank with them. Tell them this is what we're doing, this is why we're doing it and this is the outcome. Just, you know, and I, I think there's a lot of companies that don't do that and still are successful because they can manage to lose people or whatever occurs. But the best premise is integrity and transparency because that's what people want to know.
That's how they work better.
I hope that helps, Emily.
[00:10:44] Speaker A: Absolutely it does. And I think that as a business society we are seeing a more people being more drawn to authenticity and integrity and that transparency that people are more likely to. For a long time we were scared that if we told the truth that they would leave. But in reality we're finding that if you tell the truth and you're honest about what you're going through from a leadership position that people are more likely to be loyal to you and stay and want to help solve the problems. Right. Because otherwise they leave and gotta start over and start a new job. And they would rather try to help fix the company and be a part of that than abandoning. But they have to know what's really going on.
[00:11:24] Speaker B: Exactly. Yeah, you're right, Emily.
[00:11:27] Speaker A: Perfect. Well, we'll be. Doug, stick around with us. We'll be right back with more from Doug Wick. Coming up, how decision overload affects even the strongest leaders and how to break through the paralysis that can stall progress. So stay tuned.
We are just getting started. Stick around and we'll be right back with more lessons, insights and behind the scenes stories from the people driving real business forward. You're watching Biz Talk only on NOW Media Television.
And we're back. I'm Emily Galindo and this is Biz Talk on NOW Media Television. Let's dive back into the conversations that move business forward.
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I'm joined again by Douglas Wick. And this time we are tackling a challenge every leader knows all too well. Decision overload. With endless options, competing priorities and high stakes, many leaders freeze up instead of moving forward.
Doug, let's unpack this because this is something I, as I said, is every leader's nightmare. Why does decision fatigue strike even the strongest leaders?
[00:13:11] Speaker B: Well, you know, they have so many priorities and things.
The you know, I was an E Myth coach before moving into being a scaling up coach or gazelle's coach. And we had a specific module in the E Myth that dealt with special decision making techniques. And it says there are four factors that make business decisions difficult, which are a lack of information, timing between the different, different alternatives, uncertainty about the possible outcomes of the decision. And then the last one is a decision maker with a indecisive personality.
And you'd think that if somebody is a leader, they probably aren't indecisive. But given the number of decisions sometimes a leader has to make, what happens is a lot of the maybe smaller decisions don't get made and they because they're putting all their effort and energy and it's consuming their time trying to make another decision.
So if you can solve the first three, usually the fourth one, right, the lack of information, timing differences and uncertainty about outcomes. If you can solve those three, usually you can make that decision maker less of an indecisive personality. So you got to get the, you know, the right information, certainty about outcomes and a thorough understanding of what the timing of the differences could be. And that would make an indecisive manager much more sound in making decisions.
I think it's Colin Powell, maybe you remember this quote as well as I Emily. I think he says once you get to 65% or maybe it's even less than that of the information.
Anything else is probably not going to make a difference. So you should probably make the decision at about that point. I think the other thing that, that I remember I was having this is actually from a female that I was dating at one time. She once told me she read an article that said when a decision is that close, in other words, it's 51, 49.
The decision isn't the most important thing.
It's what you do after you decide that's most important. And I think we spend way too much time trying to decide what to do when the most important thing is whatever you decide, it's how you then execute on that decision.
[00:15:47] Speaker A: I love, I mean it really. That is important. I think two things for me that I take away from that is one, you can always choose something different. Right. Once you make the decision, that thing that you do after could be choosing the other thing, if that's a possibility.
But more importantly, the. I think the paralysis comes from trying to bridge the gap that you just talked about, the 65 to 100%. And not enough people feel that they can, like, they can make an informed decision at that point.
What about the alternative, the opposite of that, which is I make so many little tiny decisions all day long that by the time we get to the big ones, we're exhausted and we're just like, I don't, I don't know. I can't deal with that right now.
Yeah.
[00:16:34] Speaker B: I, I, you know, I don't.
That almost seems challenging to. I, I think the priority that there. That would be someone who has a challenge with priorities. Because, yeah, you can make. If you're making a lot of decisions, maybe you shouldn't be making so many of those small decisions and you should be delegating those decisions because the, if you're, if you're doing making so many decisions every day, then there's a possibility you're not delegating properly in my mind because your, your mind being clouded up with decisions that other people can make is, Is not a good use of your time. And, and so you're. You, you're most like. Well, if you're in a position of like a CEO or a leader of a department, you're being paid to run that department. And if you're spending a lot of your time making small decisions, I would suspect there's a possible error there in your delegating authority to people. I mean, we. I actually have a delegation system that, that the E. Myth also created that provided, you know, do you how to delegate so that you, if you feel you're giving that delegation to somebody who maybe it's the first time they're doing it, there's check ins. If it's somebody that is, you know, it's very, very capable and has been there, you don't even need to be checking in with them, just let them make those decisions.
So maybe you're on decision overload because you could be delegating better. And so it's maybe not a decision problem at all. It's the fact that you need to delegate a little bit better. That would be one premise to consider.
[00:18:32] Speaker A: Absolutely. Doug. That I think rings true for almost all people in business. Right. That, that is, you tell me if that's been in your experience, that when you come in to work with a client or a company that that might be the very first thing that we do is start delegating so that we can start prioritizing. Is that how part of your process?
[00:18:53] Speaker B: Yeah. You know, if you see the book behind me, the one thing, the first thing, the first thing the author of that book determined when he was going through his coaching process was he had, he had to hire seven people. He was doing like seven or eight jobs. And of course he had a lot, a lot of decisions to make. And you can guess that with seven or eight jobs that he was doing, he wasn't doing any of them worth a damn. And so hiring those seven people made him more effective, made the business more effective and allowed him to make decisions that were more high level and more impactful to the business that he probably wasn't making because. And probably there was a lot of jobs that weren't getting done. You know, you sometimes you go into an organization, I've seen this happen several times where there are, there's not a clear leader at the top of the organization. One of the companies I worked with had two partners. Another company I worked with had four partners. Well, what was happening was in many cases the employees would come to the person they knew would give them the go ahead with whatever they were asking. And so four people were making decisions when only one should have been perhaps on.
On the situation. And there was a lot of things getting done, but probably not always the right things that should have been done.
So a lot of times just deciding who's at the top of the organization clears up a lot of confusion and chaos in the business.
[00:20:35] Speaker A: Absolutely. That's the mom or dad process. Right. Like who's going to give me the answer that I want.
[00:20:42] Speaker B: Beautiful, Emily. Yeah, you're right.
[00:20:43] Speaker A: The how with clients that you work with how would you, how many of them would you say their decision fatigue or their lack of ability to make courageous decisions is based in fear of making the wrong decision?
[00:20:59] Speaker B: Yeah, I think, I think a lot of them are. There's a really good book, a sales process book called Jolt, and it talks about the fact that most decision with. The problem with sales today is most. Most people don't make a decision. They're okay with the status quo, and that's what they live with because they realize that if they make a decision to go move in a direction that they're not currently doing, it could mean they, they're looked at differently. It could mean even that they lose their job because it was the wrong decision.
So many people don't make decisions simply because the status quo is not going to get you in trouble in your organization. And that's a problem that's organizational as well as individual. So I hope that answered your question.
[00:21:51] Speaker A: It does. I would like you to give our viewers some advice, though, right now for those of them that are, you know, struggling with some of the things we've talked about. Whether it's making too many decisions, don't have the support or the community to make bold ones. You know, what's one decision viewers should make right now, one that's going to move them closer to clarity rather than deeper into confusion. What's the first step that can help them start that process?
[00:22:15] Speaker B: Well, I think it's just clarity about what you want, clarity about what your.
Your job description is, clarity about everybody's job description. So, you know, you know, perhaps you're trying to make decisions that really should be somebody else's, and that should be outlined on your job description. What are they accountable for? What are they responsible for in their position? And what are you responsible for in your position? Have clarity about the roles everybody should be playing playing, and then probably the ultimate clarity, which is sometimes very hard.
I think I said this on another show. Steven Spielberg has said that the hardest decision for a film director is knowing what he wants.
And if you as a CEO or the leader of the organization don't know what you want, it's pretty damn difficult for people to follow you and to have confidence in your leadership. So just start with knowing, writing out a vision of your envisioned future. Where are we going? Where is this organization going? Where am I going?
And where do you want people to follow if you can do that?
A lot of times decisions are a lot easier. They'll give you a specific example. I had a customer who we helped create their core values. And they had a partner come to them. They were in the lawn and garden industry. They developed software for the lawn and garden industry.
And they had a partner that came to them offering them an opportunity that looked like it was going to help both parties in terms of growing revenue and so forth. And they just had this feeling that something wasn't just right about it. And one of the guys in their leadership team finally went, wait a minute, this seems to disagree with our core values. And when they looked at their core value and they looked at what the customer was offering, they went, this is simple.
This doesn't follow. They didn't feel morally and ethically that it was the right thing for their organization based on their core values. And immediately, you know, watch that whole, you know, something they struggled over for weeks. It made it real simple to make a decision. So having a purpose, having values, having a clear strategy as to where you're going, all those things, if you've got those things, look at them.
Those decisions are all decision making keys that can help you decide and move your business forward in the right direction.
[00:24:50] Speaker A: Absolutely, Doug. And for those who want to learn more about some of those frameworks and some of the leadership tools that you provide, where can they find you as a resource or connect with you online?
[00:25:00] Speaker B: You know, they can connect with me on my blog. It's strategic discipline that, positioning systems that.
And also you can call me at 319-393-2565 or my email address is dwickositioningsystems.com thank you.
[00:25:20] Speaker A: You bet. We'll be right back. Up next, Doug shares the insights on leading change when people resist it the most. You won't want to miss this.
We are just getting started. Stick around and we'll be right back with more lessons, insights and behind the scenes stories from the people driving real business for you.
You're watching Biz TALK only on NOW Media Television.
And we're back. I'm Emily Galindo and this is Biz TALK on NOW Media Television. Let's dive back into the conversations that move business forward.
Welcome back to Biz talk. We have talked with Doug about leadership and about decision making. But even the best choices can fall flat if your people resist them.
So in this segment, Doug Wick and I are exploring what really drives resistance and how great leaders transform pushback into some progress.
So with that being said, Doug, we talked about like using the core values and the frameworks to and the vision of where we're going.
Does that vision ever change? And if it does, what kind of resistance can we expect from our team?
[00:26:30] Speaker B: Yeah, I'll probably be redundant to our first question in this one, but you can probably expect a lot of resistance when the, particularly if the culture is changing, if the, the way you've done business for a while is changing.
You know, there are any number of things, economic factors and so forth. The, again, it's going to provide some resistance and the way to get through that. And it's not always, I'll say it's not necessarily going to maybe get the solution that makes everybody happy. But again, I just think you need to be transparent. Why are you doing this? Get your people involved and tell them the why behind the actions you're taking. Get in front of it before it becomes a problem.
Inform them what you're doing and why you're doing it.
And I, I again, they're people are probably going to resist. Some of those people maybe are going to resist for the right reasons and some of them for the wrong reasons. If they're good people, they'll probably stay. If you're transparent and have integrity with them. If they're the wrong people, then you need to make the decision to get them off the bus. But the truth is, is if you're just transparent and you get their feedback, a lot of times maybe the solution you're pursuing can be tweaked or maybe it needs to be changed in order to consider the people who are the most vital part of your organization.
And I think that there's a lot of, right now there's a lot of fear because AI is, you know, I think people fear that AI is going to consume jobs when in fact it probably is going to consume some but actually produce others in many cases. So the transparency is really, really important.
If you believe in your people, doing that only makes sense to get change and reduce the friction in the organization to the change that you're planning to make.
[00:28:44] Speaker A: So yeah, let's look at this from like a realist, from a reality type standpoint of this is what you do for a living. You come in and create, you know, change and positivity within the organization for increased efficiency and profitability?
You know, but let's say, I don't know, have you ever had an example of a client that you've worked with that when you come in there are no core values, there is no real framework. Right. We don't have a clear vision. And, and so now that leader starts working with you and you help set up that framework. And now the way things have always been done is no longer the effective strategy. And we're implementing a whole new system of all new communication. Core value, decision making.
What can that leader expect? Or what has been your experience? When we kind of do an overhaul in a positive way, it's all for the good of the company and for everybody.
But that's not how we've always done things. And so how does that land and how do you work through it?
[00:29:44] Speaker B: In most cases, I'd say that every company has core values. They just probably aren't written down.
And the only reason, when you're creating core values, we usually come from the premise that you should create them based on what the organization has, not on inspirational levels. If you're going to do them on inspirational levels, you're gonna. You're bound to have friction and resistance.
And the only reason to do them differently than what's already there is if the organization isn't operating at the best level.
I think I'm trying to think of the book Bringing out the Best in People. It talks about that every organization is designed to get exactly the result that it's producing.
And so at the core of any change or any reason for change is the organization is probably. Well, no, the organization is rewarding the wrong behavior. And so if that's the case and we're not producing the outcomes that we want, then we do need to change. We do need to change our core values.
[00:30:57] Speaker A: And.
[00:30:57] Speaker B: And there's going to be a lot of friction, a lot of change in an organization like that, because most likely what's. What's been going on is those people haven't been held accountable. Those people haven't had their feet to the fire and been demanded to produce a certain outcome. And if you're changing in that fashion, you're going to have to expect that you need to get new people and people that follow the new core values that you're. You're building. Because in most cases, if you're going to change that drastically, it's because the outcome you've been producing is the problem of the people you have working there.
[00:31:42] Speaker A: I just really want to slow down to make sure that our viewers, like really took that in because it's really profound, what you just said in terms of your systems and your company are designed to get the exact result that you are currently getting.
So that means that seems very. It's 100% on me, the creator and leader of the organization. Is that a fair statement?
[00:32:08] Speaker B: Yeah, the book is great. I'm trying to remember the gentleman's name, but it's Bringing out the best in people is the title.
And listen, I'm an extreme believer in accountability.
When I got cancer in 2012, the first thing I did, I actually beat myself up for quite a while. But I looked at it as if I caused this.
Well, the bad thing is I caused it. Well, the good thing is that if I caused it, then I can defeat it. I can beat it. And despite the as it turned out, I had less than a 2% chance of survival by taking accountability for my acquiring cancer. I feel I found a way to then defeat it and overcome it. And if a person is in a business and doesn't feel as a CEO that they are accountable for what's going on in the business, then they're powerless to change it. So accountability on in your organization, starting at the top and going all the way down to the bottom, is critical for change and to move the business forward.
So accountability.
I'll get into another when you're hiring people, look for whether they have a internal locus of control or an external locus of control. And by that I mean when something goes wrong, am I responsible? Did I do something wrong? Or are they playing the victim? Did somebody else? Oh, that's why this happened. So when you hire people, look for them how they answer those questions. And there are. You can look up and find questions that discover whether a person has an internal or an external control locus of control.
And if you've been hiring people that have an external control locus of control, more than likely you're not getting the outcomes and nobody's taking accountability for the situations and the issues your business is having.
So change that by hiring the right people.
[00:34:19] Speaker A: Well, you led me into my last question. I mean, it might be a different answer, but I feel like that's the answer in most cases. But what's one change someone could propose today that's small enough to pilot but powerful enough to shift an entire attitude?
[00:34:38] Speaker B: Well, again, I think that that could be the answer. But I'll go back to what we talked about previously. Go to the source.
You know, find out what's going on in your business at the tactical level or wherever you're experiencing a problem. Go to the source. It could be the people, it could be a system.
It could be any number of things that you're unaware of to make decisions up here without going to the source and seeing the people and getting their feedback most of the time, as you mentioned, Emily, we know, you know, we know what the problem is better than the people that are making the decisions at the top of the organization.
So why, why with that resource would you not go to the source and discover what's going on?
There's nobody in the world that's that bright that knows the answer to every question, you know, rely on your people.
[00:35:37] Speaker A: Absolutely. And we will be right back. Coming up, we'll wrap up today's conversation with Doug Wick by tackling one of the most frustrating leadership challenges we when your strategy doesn't match what's actually happening on the ground.
We'll be right back. Stay tuned.
We are just getting started. Stick around. And we'll be right back with more lessons, insights and behind the scenes stories from the people driving real business forward. You're watching Biz Talk only on NOW Media Television.
And we're back. I'm Emily Galindo and this is Biz Talk on NOW Media Television. Let's dive back into the conversations that move business forward.
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In this closing segment, we are zeroing in on one of the highest gaps in leadership, the misalignment between big picture strategy and daily behavior.
Doug, you've seen it countless times. I'm sure leaders have a vision on paper that you help them frame up and put together and but their teams are living in a different reality. And let's talk about how you bridge that for them.
[00:37:23] Speaker B: Yeah, the first goal of the CEO of the organization is to repeat, repeat, repeat. You know, we need to have frequency of it.
About the time we're getting sick of telling people what our strategy is. They're, you know, they're finally getting it, you know.
But I think the real issue is, is there's once, once you create a strategy, it's, well, you've got a beautiful thing, but we're not communicating on it. And you know, James Clear in Atomic Habits mentions, you don't rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems. And so here's our goal, here's our strategy.
And yet most people don't have a system that communicates that strategy in the organizations, the coaching organization, the way we do it, we do it in daily huddles, we do it in weekly meetings, we do it in monthly meetings. We do it in quarterly meetings and annual meetings. A lot of times in the annual meetings is where we formulate. You know, we take a day to just work on strategy. But then we actually, in that meeting, ask ourselves, okay, what are the three ways we're going to communicate this? All right, but that's the immediate communication of it. But it should be to somehow put it up, posters on the wall, do things that execute on that strategy, make it clear and get feedback from your people. It should. The strategy should start from the bottom up, getting input on what. A lot of times I think we make strategies without understanding what the people at the customer level who are dealing with our. Our customers already know. And we go in a different direction based on an aspiration, when in reality, what the business, the. The employees at the tactical level know is exactly why customers are buying and exactly why they aren't. And so let's start there. Let's.
Let's understand why people are buying, why they're being our customers, what we're doing to keep them as customers. And then when we create a strategy, it'll resonate with the people in the organization. And we'll have testimonials, we'll have comments from people in the organization that know this. And, and the fluidity of the strategy that you created flows from the bottom to the top to back down again and again. You just got to continually repeat, repeat, repeat, because people, you're getting sick of it. That means they're finally getting it.
[00:40:13] Speaker A: Okay. And so communication down and up. Right. Is what I'm hearing you say. And so how. And we have to communicate it more often until we're sick of saying it. But surely we don't say, if we did this a million times and we said it a million times, there's still probably an opportunity that people didn't get it or it was miscommunicated. So how do you help clients close that gap between what I say I want and then what's actually happening in the field?
And how do we.
How do we analyze that? How do we look at that? How do we get that communication feedback loop going?
[00:40:49] Speaker B: Yeah, I want to have some clarity about your question.
Is the question, how do we communicate to the people in our organization what the strategy is or what.
[00:41:02] Speaker A: Sorry, it's more of how do you help? So we say the strategy, we communicate it down, but then the team is actually, actually doing something completely different or maybe there's missing the mark a little bit. So how do we close that gap?
[00:41:17] Speaker B: There's, there's enough, any number of ways. One, you know, a couple of things are true. Actively in the daily huddle, having a, maybe it's a question or maybe it's a focus for that, that week. But the other thing that we often do, which can be for an entire quarter or it can be for, you know, four to six weeks, is to create themes, themes that not only focus on productivity, but they also have a theme that is focused on what is our, what is our ultimate strategy, why are we, where what is our strategy? And then to create a theme that focuses on that operational objective or that, that, that strategy that is going to benefit our customers and benefit our business by, by being it. You know, another way is to create a brand promise. A lot of people are afraid of doing that because they're, it requires measurements and it requires taking care of customers afterwards. But a lot of times the biggest difference between an organization, their competition is simply just doing something that's different.
And whether you succeed or not, all the time customers will remember you and they'll, they'll do business that way. So creating a brand promise is probably the most effective way of achieving that with your customers and making everybody in the corporation aware of it. Whether I've done that, most of my customers do it internally first and then expose it to the world what they're, what they're doing with their brand promise. But that, you know, FedEx is a good example of that. When it absolutely positively has to be there overnight, everybody in that organization knew that that's what, you know, drove the business.
And every, every employee, every customer that did business with them, that's why they used them and that's why they were so successful for a long time.
[00:43:19] Speaker A: Thank you for that example with FedEx. I'm curious, have you implemented that with one of your clients? And could you give us an example of, you know, something that maybe the company was struggling with, how we ended up at the brand promise and how it was implemented?
[00:43:32] Speaker B: Yeah, I, I've done it with a number of customers. None to that extent that, that FedEx has done it. I think I'm trying to think. Fred Smith's quote was two words drive the business. The promise and the process.
And so in several of my organizations, what they've done is they've developed, they've hyper focused on their process of delivery. Delivery in two or three days delivery. And you know, not unfortunately in today's society. I think this is probably why some people shy away from a promise like that. One of my customers is working on that right now. He wants to have a, believe it or not, three day delivery. And compared to what Amazon does, unfortunately, that's not, that's not that.
What, exciting, perhaps, but in his industry, three days is pretty good. So that's what he's working on because again, that promise, that process will drive his business.
And we're working to get to that point where every order comes in in three days, it's out the door. It's in fact three days it's delivered to that customer. And, and again, if everybody in your organization understands that's our standard, then they're all working toward it. They take pride in it and, and that really drives the internal focus of the business and makes them very proud of what they're doing, that we got everything out today and succeeded in satisfying our customers.
[00:45:13] Speaker A: And I think it's a great piece of advice I hope our viewers take into account because as you had mentioned in our previous segment about decision making, if you are delegating some of these decisions to, you know, to other people, that brand promise that can help them decide, is this going to achieve that or is it not? And then you could defend yourself saying, I did this because it aligns with that promise. Promise, right. And it makes that.
[00:45:35] Speaker B: Exactly, exactly.
[00:45:37] Speaker A: Doug. This has been incredibly valuable. So where can people who want to explore more of this work with you, learn some of these frameworks and get some cohesiveness in their business? Where can they find you again?
[00:45:48] Speaker B: On my blog, Strategic Discipline. Positioningsystems.com also
[email protected] or just call me 319-393-2565.
Thanks for having me, Emily.
[00:46:04] Speaker A: Doug, thank you so much for joining us today. You've really given our viewers a ton of value today and some really some concrete things that they can implement into their business that are going to make it and improve it. So thank you for being here. To everyone watching, remember, great leadership isn't about perfection.
It's about progress. It's about showing up with clarity, consistency and care. Care. Especially when things feel uncertain. So thank you for tuning into Biz Talk on NOW Media tv. I'm your host, Emily Galindo. Stay inspired, stay focused and we'll see you next time.
