Tressa Springmann
Reid Stephan
Amidst the current chaotic environment, we could be fighting daily fires and embrace stagnation. But, instead, organizations must focus on sustainability, cultivating talent, and operating with purpose while using technology to transform and accelerate growth to create a lasting impact and bring positive change. So, how well are the organizations doing what matters most today?
Contributors
Transcript (Doing What Matters Most During Chaos)
Sanjog: Hello and welcome to CTN to learn more about the show, please visit www.ciotalknetwork.com and today’s topic ‘Doing What Matters Most During Chaos.’ So we know today we have a chaotic environment, we have the pandemic, we have the geopolitical and social upheavals, we have seen all possible flavours in the last few years, and it doesn’t seem to be stopping. But then what has that done to the businesses? The business models have been disrupted, they have been fundamentally changed, businesses had to pivot in many cases, so that in total we can summarize as a one-word pale, but then in order for a business to be able to, you know, sustain and stay in existence and be profitable, what does it need to do? It should perhaps focus on sustainability, cultivate talent, and fundamentally operate with the purpose and all along technology, which is emerging technology and many other areas like digital, you could use to transform and accelerate growth wherever possible, because now technology has reached a point that it could be infused into the DNA of the organization and literally shape and form how business operates, how its being done, so how our organization doing all of this and not getting stuck in the chaos, not getting left behind in the chaos, what are they doing so that they can do the whatever matters most and they stay focused and do what matters most during these chaotic times to discuss that I have Tressa Springmann, Chief Information Officer with LifeBridge Health. Hey Tressa, how are you?
Tressa: Hey, thanks for having me. I’m great.
Sanjog: Great to have you, so, Tressa, I got to set the stage there and, I became a little philosophical it looks like that, I’m talking about purposeful existence, we’re talking about people focused and be good to the planet all of these things have been discussed and they have forced look good and somebody on the podium talking about it, etc, and many organizations do exactly that they give lip service and these areas are not getting the desired attention and what the hypothesis is, if you specifically work in having a purposeful existence for a company, you know, help me develop your people and focus on sustainability, perhaps those are the key ingredients of that recipe, which will help sail us through these chaotic times and even if there is more chaos down the line, that’s going to be our saviour. But do you think, first of all, let’s see if you, if you agree with that hypothesis and if that is indeed the case, why on earth organizations are not paying attention to these areas, what’s holding up them back?
Tressa: So that’s quite a bit to address at once, I, you know, I’m going to speak directly to purpose, as you mentioned, I’m with a healthcare organization and what we’ve observed as we’ve all seen that almost wacky employment situations where people are walking away from long-term employment or making very big personal pivots in their careers. You know, healthcare is no different and as we really subscribe and non-profit health care about being committed to purpose, we have actually seen quite a bit of transition where when that purpose didn’t exist, the workforce moved on and I think many of my peers are seeing that in their space. So I think purpose is very important that you touched on, I know it’s relevant in our organization as we feel as though we’ve had the pandemic, the supply chain constraints, really continual change coming at us. It’s really regrounding in purpose that got us through, you know, in the dark days of what we have most recently come out of, we were just tactically firefighting and trying to keep our head above water, trying to do what mattered most and for us, that was for our patients and our communities. But as the waves parted, if you will, to your point about sustainability and about, frankly, you know, making sure that our tactical posture during the heat of the moment, didn’t stand in the way of a strategy and understanding what would be over the hill for our organization that became very clear as the pandemic slowed , but then as you mentioned, it was really just, kind of displaced by a few more additional waves, as you mentioned, either socioeconomic or political or supply chain, things that have specifically impact the technology. So I am going to have to say in our organization, purpose has really driven what has mattered most in this era of continual change but if we lose sight of the other elements that you brought up, I think it’s fair to say that we, as an organization or as an industry are going to learn, lose long-term advantage, just can’t operate that way forever.
Sanjog: So of course, you know, because you’re coming from a healthcare background or healthcare organization, yes? which, what would you work where the purpose part is in a way it’s a given, right? That’s how healthcare organizations are even formed, so that’s actually something which is going very well for you because that’s how the organization here, but there are many others see a manufacturing or financial services company, they are after the next border, we are after the next whatever wave that they can buy and when there is a continuity that they are looking for a profitability, they are not looking at talent, I’m not going to grossly generalize, but many of them would just take strict measures to make sure that they survive and, or show profitability in the next quarter versus a sustained existence in business, as well as doing something good for the planet, if you will. So what does holding organizations back? Is it the breed, would you say? Or is it that DNA was never allowed to be formed?
Tressa: Yeah, that’s insightful, you know, I think some of it’s exhaustion, I think some of it is the organization’s risk profile, you know, I think we’re in an era of these days and everyone’s heard about, examples of ransomware and cyber-attacks, not only in many industries and verticals, but of course in healthcare, it’s really challenged us to look at our organizational risk profile and you know, I think, organizations within insightful leadership Sanjog are not just riding the wave, but they are with intention, assessing their organization’s risk profile against their desire for profitability, expansion, etc and they aren’t allowing themselves to just fall prey to circumstance. Again, that’s an organization with intent, I think, many are still in an exhausted and reactive state. So I think you’re going to see winners and losers here and those that either aren’t tactically addressing kind of the firefighting situation may lose in the moment. But those who don’t, adroitly pivot to understanding when they need to be looking at workforce investment or sustainability and commitment to other important social missions, they’re the ones who I think in the longer play are going to be putting themselves in harm’s way.
Sanjog: So whenever an organization or an individual, it actually applies to both are unable to demonstrate that what is expected intuitively in terms of how they would react or respond
to a situation either it’s because of inertia the inability or the intent, these are the three things why something, which someone is supposed to do, they don’t do. So if you take the organizations on them and there’s chaos and there is uncertain, if they’re not able to do what they’re supposed to do, like what we are proposing are hypothesizing, do they not understand it? Is the intent missing? Or they simply don’t know how, I mean, we have this situation where organizations are supposed to embrace the chaos and still take action. So would you say it’s primarily they are stuck they don’t know what they should do because they do not know what’s going to come out and there is too much expectation of you having to produce positive ROI no matter what you’ve tried, even during times of chaos and you really don’t know, you don’t have a crystal ball.
Tressa: You know, I think those organizations that have innovation as part of their DNA and have more of a comfort of taking risk for greater reward are going to find themselves better position there because that’s a muscle they’ve exercised. They won’t fall prey necessarily to inertia, it won’t be an inability or a lack of capability because it’s a muscle they have practiced. The question is whether or not their prescriptive, excuse me with intent. Many of us can explain specific situations and again, I’ll revert back to a healthcare example where our, organization was used to a physical delivery model during the pandemic, a virtual delivery model where clinically appropriate exploded. We’re seeing that pendulum swing back, but shame on us, if we allow, the complete reversion back to a single channel delivery system of care in the United States. So, you know, beneficially in my organization that burning platform catalysed the ability to stand up a digital care centre and to really lean into the chaos, understanding that it could be messy and introduce risk. But again, I think for our organization it’s because innovation was part of our response and yet I can appreciate, and I love that framework of inertia, inability or intent and I think an organization that’s stuck needs to really dig in to which of those three factors they’re struggling.
Sanjog: Let’s take quick break listeners, we’ll be right back and Tressa, when we come back, let’s go a little bit about the first element, which I mentioned, like operating with purpose. I mean, granted that in your organization, you’ll have this and I did mention also earlier that we will have many organizations who do not operate in that, you know, operating with purpose approach and they have more profits hungry and lets us do they have the intent that we want to pivot, but how do they do so, because this requires a fundamental shift all the way from top to bottom, but that’s what it’s going to truly allow them to vote and can they suddenly become from profit hungry to totally altruistic? What would that, that morphing look like? What would that shift look like? Pivoting look like? Let’s talk about it more when we come back, please stay tuned.
Sanjog: Welcome back, so Tressa when we talk about operating the purpose, we spoke about it briefly, we did say and of course you’re lucky to have proved to be that organization, which is built on that approach. But then there are many who are more profit on the yard, they are all about making them nothing wrong with that, it’s a for-profit organization, so you shouldn’t make profit. But then when you’re talking about this as one of the fundamental foundational building blocks of an organization will be sustaining be profitable for the long haul they have to pivot, but how does an organization pivot from a profit hungry reporting to the wall street to doing good for the planet, good for their people, etc. If you were to come in as a consultant into an organization, what would be your advice for such a company? And how would you suggest the pivot.
Tressa: You know, I think, fundamentally, an organization exists to address a problem or meet a need and so at its most foundational level, whether the outcome is serving a community in a non-profit manner, or in fact making money the most fundamental bottom line is, are you as an organization seeing the problem, does it still exist? And are you meeting the need and expanding upon the need in order to sustain your business? You know, I think that’s the most fundamental question. Let me give you a reverse example, which is in non-profit healthcare we now have a lot of disruptive entrance who has very for-profit models, Amazon Walgreens, CVS, Google, they all see what their virtual care and their virtual platforms can bring to a care community and so we’ve got in our organization, our response to this is the reverse we aren’t pivoting necessarily from a profitability to altruism, but in order to sustain ourselves, we’re considering joint ventures in the for-profit sector.
We’ve got to be able to adapt and adopt if we’re going to be able to survive. So perhaps that’s not, in the direction of the example that you sort, but from my own experience, it’s an example in our organization where we have literally a RFP on the street for a virtual care platform and we were aggressively seeking for profit entities for a joint venture in order for our ability to learn from them and for us to create additional diversity in our balance sheet that again, needs to get re grounded that there is a need in our community and that there is a problem to be solved that we can share.
Sanjog: So interesting, in your example, profitability became the trigger right? or not only profitability, but existing or sustaining a business or in a very existing or business existence of business or add the current level became what was at stake, so that’s why shift was done. So would you say a message that we are directly or indirectly with sending out to the world? Is, Hey, doing good is good, but what moves is profitable, is that the message or could, we still see hope in the idea that you might be building, making a lot of money, but there is still value in you thinking differently for your existence, for the long haul and what I call it making a bigger impact and actually matter, not just make a buck matter as an organization, is that not trigger our motivation enough or is not a motivation at all for any company.
Tressa: I think it depends on to whom you’re asking that question. You know, I would say from the majority of my team members, the associates in my organization, you know, as long as they have fair and equitable compensation, purpose matters. They’ve chosen to be part of an IT organization that day in day out is actually changing the care of a community, that’s very intentional. So purpose does matter, you know, as you perhaps move up the pay scale, I can’t speak to that as much, we don’t have to answer to shareholders in my organization, so we don’t have that pressure. But I can tell you that equally important with innovation is the ability to, reinvent ourselves and to continually reimagine the work we do in more cost, competitive ways that creates additional capacity in what we’re able to do and for me and my budget, it provides additional dollars to reinvest in the future. So, you know, I think if we were to look at our workforce, if we were to look at sustainability, I think there’s tremendous value in people believing in what they’re doing counts, we’ve seen it time and again, so I think in the long run, that’s something that you can’t discount.
Sanjog: You know; I also see a quote I usually use is, money is not the motivator, but lack of it is the biggest de-motivator, which means that if an organization makes just about enough money or an individual makes just the right amount of money, what they feel they should get, hopefully that is a good match there then the real motivator becomes these things that you just mentioned, that operating with a purpose or them growing as professionals, you know, those hygiene factors if you will. So the message,
Tressa: I couldn’t agree more and we’re seeing that with the nursing shortage in the United States right now, which is there are bidding wars going on everywhere, getting nurses who are willing to move around to move around and the dollars being thrown around with this are crazy. But having said that dollar means only a small percentage of the population where profitability is top of mind because the rest of the industry acknowledges that as long as I’m being fairly compensated, purpose is more important than profit.
Sanjog: So now with that said, like we spoke about, you know, operating with purpose and there are ways for us to be able to support inject that into an organization or atleast in leaderships had and so that in the ivory tower or house over the decisions are made, or the tone of the organization is created we are able to make a dent. The next thing comes is sustainability, which could be economy-wise, it could be environmental approach to sustainability, you know, there are different flavours for people, for society, for environment and economy. So that’s where the sustainability dimensions exist, so when you talk about those dimensions, what we are looking at is most organizations are focusing value for their shareholders and customers, but then we want them to do good for the environment or for the people in general, not just the employees, because they will do better work for them and produce more money for them, but generally to the poor, the society, like operating with purpose is one thing, but this is again to matter beyond just filling your own time. How’d you go about doing that? How do you introduce that in the culture of the organization, but even more so in that board or in that executive team so they start setting the tone for the rest of the organisation?
Tressa: Yeah, I think it speaks to the fundamentals of an organizational culture, as you’ve been saying, you know, it’s a continual rebalancing of what you can afford to do and what makes sense to do and, in healthcare many organizations remain driven by volume, so it’s an each his game, how many chest X-rays, how many seat ABGs, how many tests are being done? And you know the reality here is that in the majority of the industry, there’s a tremendous amount of waste and of over testing. So from a healthcare perspective, that sustainability is really an organization saying what’s best for the patient, as opposed to what’s best for our pocket and they are oftentimes in conflict with themselves and so you really need to get to the fundament fabric of an organization and speak to what their commitment is and how far and how fast contributing to these higher measures are going to be for that organization. Otherwise, if they’re just left to any form of informal direction or informal influence, an organization won’t be purpose full in really making sure their brand is authentic as it relates to what it’s giving back to a community, to society, to the environment, etc.
Sanjog: Let’s take a quick break listeners and I’m filtering farm that we also reached Stephan who is the Vice President & Chief Information Officer from St. Luke’s Health system, who has just joined us and hey Steve how are you?
Reid: Very good, thank you, sorry to be late for this.
Sanjog: Oh, no worries about, I mean we Tressa and I were to chit chatting on the, you know, the bigger things we all should be doing, right? Operating with purpose and sustainability, etc and we’d love for you to give us your input, once we come back, how about we just get your input to get, all of us agreed on how read you’re thinking about operating with purpose and sustainability angle, which organizations should be following but in many cases you don’t see them following and what do you think if you came as a $5,000 an hour consultant, what would you recommend it? Okay. So if we said you’re right back, thanks, so please stay tuned listeners we’ll be right back
Sanjog: Welcome back, so now that you’ve joined at person Tressa and I had spoken a little bit about, in order for an organization to do what matters most during the chaotic and uncertain times the ideas like operating the purpose and focusing on sustainability, these are the two areas I touch, now with your journey, whether at your current organization St Luke’s or your past life, what do you see are the common denominator,or the four fundamentals, which when utilize allow a company to operate with purpose or shift to that they’re most of them are otherwise profit, hungry if you will and they have the matter for that, they have to do these two things. So what works, what doesn’t work, what has been your findings so far and learning?
Reid: Yeah, you know, I would say there’s not a hospital or a health system out there that doesn’t have, mission and a vision that you can’t attach to I doesn’t just sound great and look great on paper. The further I get in my career and what I’ve really kind of honed in on during this pandemic experience is it really is about the people, when I think of the risks facing our health system I put workforce risks kind of in that top right quadrant of impact and likelihood and this whole COVID experience has been such a unique pressure test, right and the results generally kind of across our country have been mixed and so what we, what I focused on with my team is just really making sure they understand that the idea of our talent, of our people being our most valuable resource, that’s not just a catchphrase, right? That’s not just a moniker to put at the bottom of a poster, but it truly is kind of core to how we operate. I think that it’s interesting that this last year in particular has been a challenge in terms of people that are generally aligned in how they view the world having some of that alignment, be B2B challenged by some of the choices that have been made. So as a system, we made the decision back in July, the COVID vaccine would be a condition of a requirement for employment and that has been a, it’s been, it’s introduced some challenging conversations within our internal staff and so trying to lead people through this idea that unity doesn’t mean that you can’t approach it as unity means you have to agree with me, you can have unity and still have differing views on, on fundamental things, but there has to be an openness, a vulnerability, a humility to having that conversation and respecting that people may arrive at different decision points and so when I think about what’s most important for us in the future, it’s that focus on our and it’s helping people navigate through both the immediate challenge of COVID today, but also knowing that there’s going to be some PTSD at the months to come, and there’s been potentially some fractures in relationships or trust or friendships and you have to acknowledge that and you have to be focused on how can we lead people through that and not as lead people through that, but be better for it and be better positioned because ultimately knowing how to navigate through this and knowing how to achieve that unity, even when there’s differing kind of views, that’s going to be fundamental for how effectively we’re going to care for the people and the communities that we serve. So for me, it always comes back to people, I tell my team all the time, right? I don’t lose sleep at night, worrying about cybersecurity, about our data centre, about the health of our applications, not that those things don’t occupy a space in my mind, but what keeps me up at night? What gives me up in the morning is thinking about how are the folks on my team today? Like, are they equipped to deal with the challenges that they’re going to be faced with? And am I doing all that I can to snowplough and block and create a path for them to do that as effectively as possible.
Sanjog: So Tressa, based on what Reid mentioned and he brought up a good people component to it, but do you think if we tell them, Hey, you can do what you want to do so we can agree to disagree, which is the right kind of freedom of a way of how somebody expresses their views, but then who should become the pied Piper so we all take them in one direction because if they’re all going in different direction, isn’t that responding chaos in the first place internally within the organisation?
Tressa: You know, interesting I think what I heard is that, as leaders, we need to make the space very safe for the sharing of disagreeing views and to explore together, how to more effectively get that unity. I hear what you’re saying we ultimately, as leaders always need to take the unique perspectives of a diverse workforce and align them for a common purpose, right? I mean, that is leadership so whether the environment is chaotic or not, which has felt certainly that way over the last couple of years, just really authentic leadership is exactly a set, which is we’ve got to create sufficient space for people to be comfortable sharing dissenting views and working through our differences and, you know, there’s an old adage in certain circumstances where your people change or your people change. So, you know, for those for whom and I think the vaccine mandate is a really phenomenal example because it’s something we’re all struggling with no one wants to be told what to do, but bar none, almost everyone who gets admitted to a United States hospital does not want to be cared for by people who they believe are protected by the virus. I mean, it’s really those, collisions of fundamental beliefs that we’re navigating through, so, yeah, you know, again, either the people change or the people change and in certain circumstances, sadly they are stepping away from prior industry work or from prior contribution and my organization and I’m assuming, that’s what, my peer here was expressing as well and, you know, I can’t state it any more importantly, especially in our industry, when you take the people out of health care, you really have nothing left and so that is a fundamental and essential element to allow the chaos to exist but as a leader create a space of safety and a way forward for them and to lead.
Sanjog: So to build on this, this actually reminds me of a book that I read, ‘leaders eat last’ and I think this is by Simon Sinek and in that he gave an example that in the, you know, defense services, right, army, Navy SEALS, etcetera, what they are supposed to do is, really very strictly follow orders and or what has been called by the superiors but at the same time they are groomed to instead focusing on themselves or their own wellbeing, they are supposed to be focused on wellbeing of their peers or people who are working with them. So Reed coming to you, the defense sources see more chaos than we can ever imagine and the regular non-defense services or the regular civilian population, they saw this chaos, and this is totally shocked them and they are struggling with it. Do you think some of those principles, which are tried and tested in a different environment, could be brought here where like you mandated vaccines for no, without vaccines, you are not allowed to work or that become second bush, so that was a mandate, there will be some human cry, but people will listen and hope for the impact of that. But at the same time, when we do performance appraisal, interestingly, we only do performance appraisal of that person for him or herself, we never do it in context of how much they care for somebody else or putting somebody else’s interest above theirs. Do you think there is a fundamental shift required in the way we even tackle our fields?
Reid: Yeah and so I think I’ll take the first question you asked about, are there principles in military operations that could apply that we could learn from in a setting like ours, that’s not a military operation and I think the answer is yes, so I certainly am familiar with the phrase leaders eat last, the phrase I like is leaders speak last, I spent some time in the military and one of my commanding officers taught a very important principle to me by word and also by example, when he was in a meeting if time allowed and sometimes time doesn’t, but if the situation allowed, he would always ensure that he was the last person to speak because otherwise, if you were to speak early in a discussion, it might make it difficult, then for someone who had a different view, or someone who was advocating a different position to speak up, they might feel like that would be in subordinate or there wasn’t space for it and so that is a principle that has served me well and in particular, around this issue of the, of the vaccine mandate and so as I’ve met with multiple members of my team who had different feelings about this, I was very clear about my position, I was supportive of it, I think the vaccine has proven to be safe and effective, I think it’s a benefit for the community, I think a probate, it is a support for our frontline staff, it preserves our capacity for care and so by stating that, but it also then allowing people to have the space to share their opinions it created avenues to have unity, even when there was maybe misalignment and fundamental outlook. The other thing that does is in those moments, when there is a time critical nature for a leader to say, look we’ve passed a pointed discussion, we have to act, here’s what we’re going to do, those around you are much more inclined to embrace that and follow when they’ve had other opportunities historically, to be able to speak their mind and have their voice heard.
Sanjog: Let’s take a quick break listener when we come back, Tressa, why don’t we build upon this whole people thing and talk about cultivating talent? So one of the approaches that we always take in, at least in the standard got in development or people development is we look at the roles we have and we develop a career path for them and put them in those job categories and roles, etc, but rarely do we do fit for purpose profiling and or we allow a person sprints and talents to really blossom by giving them an environment and to some extent what the job they should end up doing so that you get best of both worlds, you get the maxim output from that individual, and also you get your work done but at the same time, this person, when is this person who’s going to give inputs, which you want to hear so that you’re cohesively a better team and also then they execute on the orders, given which they are supposed to follow, in both cases, you’ve got the most motivated and the most talented and the most competent person in your team individually and collectively, how would you make that happen to so far human resource, individual line of businesses and technology, all of them have done talent development, but it is more corporate role first and try to fit that person into that role versus. Please stay tuned listener, we will be right back.
Sanjog: Welcome back, so Tressa should you, if you were to put yourself in that role which is created for you and then bring whatever talent that you bring, but you are kind of being a force fit into a role would you prefer that, in IT or in line of business or would you rather have your innate talents recognize, see what job needs to get done and consciously all people, your supervisor, your HR, organization, design structure, etc, is all aligned so that you blossom to the best version of you that you can be, it doesn’t happen today? Why not? And can it be done if yes, how?
Tressa: Well, you know, I think when, a new associate joins an organization that is part of the journey that is fundamentally the easiest, it’s as you’ve mentioned, the blossoming and the growing, of both the organization and that individual, so that, you do cultivate their innate talent and as a leader, you’re able to assess and where possible flex the organization, if possible, in order to meet the different needs of that individual, you know, I think to me as a leader, it really is important and I insist on this, on my own leadership team that, to a person, they know their people, they know them on a personal relationship, and they are planful and they, have an abiding interest and understanding of how that individual sees themselves, where they would like to be dreams and aspirations they have as a long-term performance play, what they would like to do in the short term, and to make sure that opportunities exist for them to experiment and raise their hand in ways to stretch themselves. I recently, invested in a personal coach for myself and my career isn’t just starting, I guess, I would hope it’s not near sun setting either, but you know, she gave me some real words of wisdom. She said, listen, your entire career, you have been focused so hard on minimizing the weaknesses that your competency profile has provided you in order to keep growing your leadership capability. I think you should just focus in and double down on those superpowers you have, and do that very well and forget trying to fix the other things that hadn’t even occurred to me. But it’s because she fundamentally took the time to understand where I stood, what was motivating me, what was getting me out of bed, what I was interested in and I really think that cultivating talent specifically comes down to knowing the individual desires and aspirations of the folks on your team.
Sanjog: So Reid, what would you do differently if you were given a carte blanche on fundamentally shifting how you cultivate talent, who presses point is focus on your strengths and strengths only, and allow the work happen in a way so that the best form of what gets produced by that individual pallet, who would utilize more.
Reid: Yeah, I’ll just start by saying I could not agree more with Tressa, there’s a book I’ve read recently called the ‘nine lies at work’, which has been just great and one of the lies is that the best people are well-rounded and it’s meant to be a bit provocative. Like, obviously it’s not saying you don’t look to improve upon areas that you can grow and to further develop in but the fundamental premise is that people are spiky. They’re not rounded and that uniqueness is a feature of the human condition, not a bug and so as we’ve discussed that as a leadership team, it’s been a point of discussion and a point of conversation with our entire department in that don’t feel like if you have a strength that somehow, if you always rely on that strength, you’re doing something wrong or that you are somehow minimizing what you contribute to the organization like the strengths you have, the natural interests that draw you there, focus on those, pursue those, we’ll help you with developing another areas that make sense and that augment, but like don’t not take advantage of a natural strength you have, because you feel like you’ve got to be well-rounded and develop in an area that’s not a natural area of expertise for you and so in the course of that, we’ve had some really great nuggets of example, kind of shine for our organization and we’ve had people that have kind of raised their hand and said, look, you know, this isn’t really my role, but this is an area that I really enjoy and I think I have a natural skill set in and so in the course of that conversation, we’ve been able to carve out roles that are specific to someone’s natural strengths and they’ve grown and developed, which is one of the greatest experiences you have as a leader is when you see somebody flourish as you support them and kind of give them a little boost, but we’ve also directed that benefit of the entire organization as their strengths and talents have been used to further our agenda and to allow us to expand work in a way that we wouldn’t have envisioned possible without their strengths.
Sanjog: So Reid, if someone was allowed to blossom in terms of helping folks to have them focus on their strengths and you also give them the job which they can best do, does that automatically prepare them for handling chaos individually and collectively so that it rolls up into an organizational competency?
Reid: I think so I’m a very glass, half full kind of guy, but like entropy is this, the nature of life order is always going to dissolve the disorder and we shouldn’t necessarily try and fight that, but just recognize it and accept it and then understand that we can use our strengths and if we have historical experience of using those strengths, then we don’t necessarily approach that chaos with fear or trepidation, but rather with excitement and with confidence born by Hey, I’ve faced this situation before that I had no idea really what I was getting into, but I was able to navigate through it using my strengths, relying on peers, absolutely I think it prepares them to handle the immediate needs, but also future events of chaos that will come.
Sanjog: Last question or you Tressa or maybe even for you Reid, just give me one phrase, 10 words or less, or one word, if that’s what you do use is that one thing you would do as a leader to fix in you, you already told me that you pull all of us that you use first off, but what’s that one thing you will fix in yourself, which will allow you to be better equipped as a leader to help) organization and its people do things which matter, you know?
Tressa: Wow, I think, you know, I said that, I was coached to focus on my superpowers, you know, I think we’ve learned and seen that resilience is key. It seems to be the new competency out there that that really allows people to survive and thrive in chaotic situations and be okay flourishing and ambiguity and moving through changes. So for me, it’s continuing to be personally resilient, to example that and to look for ways to encourage and create space for those that we work with in order to become more resilient, because I don’t think the current state is going to change.
Sanjog: So Reid, 10 seconds, give us a word or phrase that would be your thing.
Reid: Never let a problem to be solved, become more important than a person to be served.
Sanjog: Beautiful, thank you so much again, that’s unreal for sharing your insights about how our organization and its people and its leaders could come together and do some things new, more different so that they start doing what matters most during the chaos. Thanks so much again.
Tressa & Reid: Thank you, thank you.
Sanjog: And listeners, please connect with us on social media, subscribe to our podcast. Once again thank you for listening to CTN, this is your host Sanjog Aul signing off the next week, take care and God bless.
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