On the Brink with Andi Simon

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147: Ask Andi—How To Successfully Achieve Change Management Step 3 Aug 19, 2019

Show notes

Learn how to bring real, lasting change to your organization!

Welcome to Part 3 of the podcast series we've been doing on change management. (You may want to go back and listen to Step 1 and Step 2.) Now you're ready to learn the steps you need to take to actually bring about real change in your organization. Yes, change is hard, and yes, your people will most likely fight it, but once you get going, you'll find the process extremely exciting. In these times of rapid disruptive change and major technological advances, the future of your business may be at stake, so I urge you not to miss this Ask Andi. Listen, learn and share!

First, you've got to make the undesirable desirable

People hate change. They're afraid of it. It's painful. It's so much easier just to keep doing things the way they've always been done. So when you try to get them to change, they typically will balk, and try to put up hurdles to circumvent the change process. What I talk about in this Part 3 is how to overcome these hurdles.

When you start trying to change your organization, you are going to be asking people to change the story in their minds from what they believe to be true to something they are unfamiliar with. They will need to visualize the new story, the new desirable. What's so important about this step is that the new story has to be visual, so if you don't have your people draw pictures and tell you stories about it, it will remain abstract and nothing will change.

Then, invest in skill-building

If your people don't have the ability or skills to accomplish the changes you're asking for, just telling them to change won't get you anywhere because they won't know how to do it. A better strategy? If you're trying to build an organization that's, for example, more innovative or more self-motivated, figure out the new skills people will need in order to be more innovative or more self-motivated. Then set up training sessions or seminars or staff retreats to help them learn "how to do things differently."

Pay attention to the why

Why's matter. Success will come by your explaining over and over (and over) the "why" behind the changes you're making. And what you'll see is that when people know why the changes are necessary, they stop resisting. Talking to them about the why brings them into the process, emables them to be part of the thinking and planning, just not passive receivers of new expectations.

Symbols really matter

As humans, we "live our symbols," so take a look at your organization, at the rituals your people construct to recognize accomplishments. Then think about how you're going to change those rituals. The most important changes will be in the symbols, so how do you make them accepted and not resisted and rejected? Get your company's leaders, particularly those who can undermine the entire change effort, to lead the "symbols" change process. If they embrace it and make it part of the new culture, others will too.

Watch our webinar, "Managing the Process of Change"

In this instructional webinar, we demonstrate the ChangeMap™ process that enables you and your staff to adapt to changing times instead of running from what's coming.

To learn how to implement change that actually works, we recommend these blogs and podcasts:

Wondering whether your organization needs to change? Let's talk.

At Simon Associates Management Consultants, our specialty is helping organizations accept, prepare and adapt to change. Applying the tools, methods and principles of anthropology is one of the primary ways we do this. We invite you to contact us to discuss how our team of corporate anthropologists and culture change experts can work with you so you and your business can overcome today's challenges and achieve great heights. We look forward to hearing from you.

Resources

My book: "On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights"
Our website: Simon Associates Management Consultants

Get the full transcript of this Ask Andi episode here.

146: Ask Andi—How To Successfully Achieve Change Management Step 2 Aug 12, 2019

Show notes

Learn how to overcome the pain of change!

I hope you joined me for my previous podcast, the first segment in our series of three Ask Andi's on change management. I explained how to identify your archetype as well as the archetypes of the people in your organization, so that you can better understand what you're going to be changing your organization to and why this is going to be so challenging. (No surprise: people don't like to change.) Today, I want to talk about changing your culture, what this means, and how to go about it. If your business wants or needs to change, this podcast is for you. Enjoy!

Part of why change is so hard is because as humans, we exist within a culture.

Culture isn't something you wear to work. It's really the essence of who you are within your community, which for this discussion is the workplace. And in a culture change process, you're challenging the very essence of who a person is, their identity. So before you can change your culture to something different, you need to understand what your culture is now, and how changing it is probably going to be met with resistance from your employees, maybe a great deal.

The OCAI: a very insightful tool that identifies what your culture is today and where you want to go

At SAMC, we use the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) developed by Drs. Kim Cameron and Robert Quinn at the University of Michigan, to help bring about company-wide commitment to change. The OCAI is a highly effective tool that assesses current and preferred organizational culture by asking employees and other stakeholders about their company's culture and what they would prefer it to be in the future. It really helps you graphically see what you're dealing with in your business, culture-wise.

When you and your employees take the OCAI, you'll each create a graph that reveals how you think about your company culture of today, and how you would prefer it to be going forward. To help you get the picture, here are two sample OCAI graphs:

It is very interesting when you do the OCAI because it asks you what type of culture you really want, and what that really means. Do you want to be more collaborative and more innovative, or more hierarchical, rules-driven and competitive? The OCAI will reveal this so that you can see where exactly you need to change. Once you've done it, take a good look at what your red and blue areas are, where your culture is ticking along and where it needs to shift. If it needs to shift only a little bit, you're not off by much. But if you need a dramatic 10-point shift, it's time to change.

Can you guess what your company's culture is?

When we take clients through their OCAI, we point out the four dominant types of organizational cultures, each with its own personality archetypes: Clan (Collaborative), Adhocracy (Creative), Hierarchy (Controlling) and Market (Competing).

There is no one good culture, but during fast-changing times like these, the wrong culture can take you down the wrong road. Moreover, if "the way we do things here" is given too much sway, it can truly hold a company back.

Join me for Change Management Step 3 where we focus on helping your whole team change

In the third podcast in this series, I explain that as you get further into a change management process, you're going to be changing your culture and the way things are done in your organization, and it's going to hurt. People are going to resist. But it can be done with a minimum of pain! Please join me for Step 3 as we really dig into the nuts and bolts of how to bring about real, lasting.change.

To get up to speed on change management, check out these blogs, podcasts and webinar:

Blog: 10 Steps to Change Your Corporate Culture
Blog: Why Change Is So Scary—And Why That Dooms Businesses To Fail
Blog: Change: Are You Going To Avoid It Or Embrace It?
Podcast: Ask Andi—How Do You Change Your Culture?
Podcast: Kimberly Davis—Leading Change: Are You A Brave Leader?
Webinar: Mastering the Process of Change

Wondering how, and whether, to change your culture? Let's talk.

In today's disruptive economy, your business needs to be able to sustain growth in changing times or you risk being left hopelessly behind. Often, the best place to start is with your culture. Is it ready to respond to the needs of the future or is it mired in the outdated ways of the past? At Simon Associates Management Consultants, we are culture change experts who specialize in helping organizations change, grow and thrive amidst today's fast-changing times. Please contact us. We'd like to help.

Resources

My book: "On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights"
Our website: Simon Associates Management Consultants

Get the full transcript of this Ask Andi episode here.

145: Ask Andi—How To Successfully Achieve Change Management Step 1 Aug 05, 2019

Show notes

Learn actionable, lasting ways to manage change in turbulent times!

At SAMC, we routinely receive requests to lead workshops or provide consulting support for companies that have been struggling with changing their organization, especially in these rapidly-changing times. Is managing change something you're struggling with too? To help you initiate a change process that will stick and that your employees will actually buy into, we've put together three Ask Andi podcasts that take you through the key concepts of this unique approach to business challenges. Here's the first one. Enjoy, learn and share!

First, what archetype are you?

In this first podcast in the series, I talk about the power of who we are and why our archetypes keep us comfortable in the way we do things. Since humans are very herd-like, we often find ourselves happiest when we can behave in ways that match our styles, personalities and archetypes.

This tendency should not be underestimated as a powerful hurdle to overcome if you are going to change a group of employees in your company, or even the entire organization. If over the years, you have recruited people who are very similar to one another and share common beliefs and values, it will be a challenge to help them do things in new and different ways. This is going to bump up against the very essence of who they are.

To begin, take a look at this CultureTalk survey to determine what type of person you are. Are you an Explorer, like I am? A Ruler? Perhaps you are a Magician or a Caretaker. When you have a team of people that you want to change, your first task will be to figure out who they are today. Once you know this, you can think about the best way to help them change for tomorrow.

This graphic explains the 12 different personality archetypes:

It also shows how companies themselves become archetypes. Ikea, for example, is an Everyman company. Nike is for Heroes. Jeep is for Explorers. What's your company's archetype? What are the archetypes of your employees? Think long and hard on this because the answers you come up with have a lot to do with how to start, implement and sustain the changes you want to implement in your organization.

Next, what archetypes are your team members?

Once you have a sense of the archetypes you are dealing with on your staff, you've accomplished the beginning stage of the challenge. Well done! The second critical part of change management (discussed in my next Ask Andi podcast, "How To Successfully Achieve Change Management Step 2") focuses on key differences between the generations that in very real ways affect the way your business operates. Boomers are very different from Gen Xers (now in their 40s). Both of these are very different from Millennials (Gen Ys) who will make up 50% of the workforce by 2020, which is right around the corner.

Add to this the rapid changes that are influencing the way we work, consume goods, get from place to place, plan vacations, pay our taxes...everything. And don't forget the big changes that are already here, such as robots, AI, self-driving vehicles, cryptocurrencies and blockchain. With all of these massive changes coming at us faster and faster, it's no wonder the older generations are having a hard time keeping up and often feel left behind, particularly at work.

Join me for Change Management Step 2 where we focus on CULTURE

Having set the stage for why it's so important to identify your own archetype and those of the people in your organization before you can start a change process, I will pause here and save my next thoughts for the second podcast in this series in which I shift gears and talk about company culture: how to assess your culture today and determine what you would like it to be in the future. Please join me for that one too, as there's a lot more to learn!

To get up to speed on change management, we recommend these blogs, podcasts and white paper

Blog: Is Your Crisis Coming? Anthropology Can Help You Change To Avoid It.
Blog: 10 Steps to Change Your Corporate Culture
Podcast: Warren Whitlock—How to Overcome the Pain of Change
Podcast: Kimberly Davis—Leading Change: Are You A Brave Leader?
White paper: 10 Trends From The Trenches 2019

Need some help adapting to change? Let's talk.

More than ever before, businesses need to be able to sustain growth in changing times. Otherwise, they risk being left hopelessly behind. Are you nimble and adaptive or stuck in the old "that's how we've always done it" syndrome? Do you have a plan in place for the future or are you on the brink of being disrupted? At Simon Associates Management Consultants, we specialize in helping organizations change, grow and thrive amidst today's fast-changing times. Please contact us. We're ready to help you change your organization so it can soar!

Resources

My book: "On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights"
Our website: Simon Associates Management Consultants

Get the full transcript of this Ask Andi episode here.

Want to be featured on an upcoming Podcast episode? Tell us more about you and you too can be on the brink of "soaring!"

144: Ask Andi—How To Find Your Blue Ocean Strategy® Step 2 Jul 29, 2019

Show notes

Now that you know the basics, it's time to go visually exploring!

Last week, I shared with you my Ask Andi session, "How To Find Your Blue Ocean Strategy® Step 1," in which I explained how Blue Ocean Strategy shows you how to go after nonusers, carve out a new, unoccupied market space and make the competition irrelevant. "OK," you may be saying, "what do I do next? I've done my strategic canvas but where do I go from there?" Now that you've started to see, feel and think in new ways about your business (visual awakening), you're ready to go visually exploring, which is a very exciting part of the Blue Ocean methodology. Here we go!

It's time to go out into the field and see with your own eyes, listen with your own ears

Visual exploration is at the core of Blue Ocean thinking (and right up my alley as a corporate anthropologist). We know that what we "see and feel" helps us better "think" about the problems to be solved and the ways to understand what we are really doing. Words are fine but if you see something or hear somebody talking about a problem they cannot figure out, something in your brain goes, "Aha, there is an opportunity for us."

There are many ways to go exploring. But let me begin with a strong caveat: One of the key rules of Blue Ocean Strategic thinking is "never outsource your eyes." I must repeat this. Don't outsource your exploring. Get out of your office and go searching for new ideas yourself.

So, how exactly do you "see" your business with fresh eyes?

This is crucially important because it's how we see that we will be able to really understand what's happening, and why it's happening, and where we can find nonusers with unmet needs. Visual awakening, therefore, becomes a very important part of your Blue Ocean Strategy.

If you've done your visual awakening strategic canvas properly (you might want to take another listen to "How To Find Your Blue Ocean Strategy® Step 1"), you're thinking about unmet needs and nonusers. But first, who is a nonuser? And why aren't they using you? Are they using a substitute for you, a competitor? Your job is to not just find answers but to find out why. Also, ask yourself: who could be your customer, and how can you find new ways to satisfy their needs in ways your competitors haven't thought of yet? (Think Starbucks, Uber, Airbnb.)

Your task: to "see" the things you've been ignoring

This is one of the primary Blue Ocean ways to find your nonusers. Go visually exploring to see who will be your customer tomorrow and what they are doing and not doing. What's changing in how they buy? Are there people struggling with problems that you could help solve? What are they searching for online right now? Could Google Analytics and Inbound Marketing help you see what they are searching for and where they go to buy it? Are they staying on your site or are they leaving you quickly? And the biggest question is, why aren't they using you now?

How to go visually exploring using anthropology

As anthropologists, our job is to hang out, step out, observe and look at things with fresh eyes, listen to people's conversations and storytelling, and try and find themes, or threads, or pain points, or opportunities. Here's an introduction to how we do this at SAMC.

Remember, people cannot tell you what they're doing. They will always tell you what they think you want to hear. But if you watch them, you will see what they're actually doing, and it will be transformative for you. By simply hanging out and observing consumer behavior, you begin to better understand what nonusers are doing and how you could possibly solve their problems or serve their needs.

You're looking for the new ideas that are all around you

You're trying to find out a deeper meaning, a bigger idea, something that's right before you that you're just not seeing yet. Sit on the phones, or search the internet, or hang out with clients. Take pictures. Ask people what they mean.

Once you begin to see, feel, and think about things with fresh eyes, all of a sudden you'll hear things that are coming at you and say, "Oh wow, that's a Blue Ocean possibility!" And that's when you can start to change the way you see things.

Don't discount these observations and new discoveries about consumer behavior because they could open up a huge market space for you, your Blue Ocean Strategy. So open your eyes and your ears and go visually exploring!

In this episode, I discuss:

How to go visually exploring
Who are your nonusers
What are consumers' pain points that you could solve
How to look at your business with fresh eyes
Ways to overcome the habits and biases of your mind map
How to recognize untapped markets that you could capitalize on
Observing people's behaviors like an anthropologist

For a deeper dive into Blue Ocean Strategy, we recommend these blogs, podcasts and white paper

Resources

My book: "On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights"
Our website: Simon Associates Management Consultants

Get the full transcript of this Ask Andi episode here.

143: Ask Andi—How To Find Your Blue Ocean Strategy® Step 1 Jul 22, 2019

Show notes

Ready to find your Blue Ocean Strategy and soar? Listen in!

Tired of competing against all those "others" that you have been benchmarking yourself against for years, without much benefit? Are you ready to carve out a new market space and make the competition irrelevant? It might be time for you to find your Blue Ocean Strategy, the amazingly successful methodology that helps you see, feel and think in new ways about your business in these rapidly-changing times. In this "Ask Andi" podcast, I'll take you through the initial steps of a Blue Ocean Strategy so you can learn how to apply it to your own business.Listen and learn!

Blue Ocean Strategy helps you create a market space where you are the "only" — at least for a little while

The basic premise of Blue Ocean Strategy is not to do more of the same, cheaper, or to stay within the same market space, or to compete with others in the same industry that you're in today. Neither is it about digging deeper into a consumer's profile and selling them more product.

Blue Ocean Strategy is about identifying your customers' (and potential customers') problems, their pain points, their unmet needs, so you can offer them your innovative solutions.

When Renée Mauborgne and Chan Kim conducted their original research which led to their groundbreaking book, "Blue Ocean Strategy," they studied 150 companies, looking for ones that thrived. What they found was that the businesses that excelled did so because they solved a problem differently from their peers. Not simply finding ways to do things cheaper or faster, they created their own unique solution to consumers' needs. They saw completely differently. They looked at the market with fresh eyes.

Here are some well-known examples of Blue Ocean thinking: Starbucks, Uber, [yellow tail] wine, Cirque du Soleil and Airbnb. Every day, more come on the scene.

So, how do you find your Blue Ocean Strategy?

The first step is to take stock of where you are now, how you're competing in the industry you're in, and what you're offering from the buyer's perspective backwards. The tool that helps you see, feel and think about your business in new ways is called a strategic canvas. It's an interesting and simple tool, but often hard to use, because a lot of business people aren't really sure what parameters they're competing on or who their competitors are.

Think of the strategic canvas as an analysis that depicts the way an organization structures its products or services to buyers in relation to the offerings of other companies who are trying to solve the same problem in the same way. This will help you clarify whether you're in a "me-too" position or really out ahead of the pack.

Everybody is wedded to what they know and the new is terrifying

Your job in finding your Blue Ocean Strategy is to begin to see, feel and think in new ways before you go and do anything. In my next Ask Andi (How To Find Your Blue Ocean Strategy® Step 2), I'll talk about the importance of visual exploring. I'll explain the places where you can go and hang out, take pictures and videos, and begin to see what's really happening out in the marketplace. You'll learn to observe what people are actually doing with your product, what are they not doing, and what go-arounds they're using when they can't find what they're looking for.

With Blue Ocean Strategy, change and growth are waiting for you. Stay tuned!

In this episode, I discuss:

Who's going to be your customer in three years
Creating your strategic canvas
Identifying key competing factors
Finding new market space you can capture
Looking for non-customers
Think from the buyer's perspective backward
Who could use you who isn't

To learn more, check out these blogs, podcasts and white paper

Resources

My book: "On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights"
Our website: Simon Associates Management Consultants

Get the full transcript of this Ask Andi episode here.

142: Ken Hoyt—Harnessing The Extraordinary Power of Data Jul 15, 2019

Show notes

A little over two years ago, in June 2017, Dr. Kenneth Hoyt did a podcast with us about his work with higher education institutions that needed, or wanted, to change. We had previously worked with Ken when he was president of Centenary University from 2002 to 2009 when he turned around the institution, dramatically increasing enrollment from 1,600 students to 3,300. How did he do this? By better understanding and improving retention rates and expanding into non-traditional, adult, online and graduate programs. It was Ken's mastery of the power of data that enabled him to provide the insights needed to better recruit potential college students while adapting Centenary's curricula to their needs. Are you in need of a turnaround? Listen and learn!

It was this same understanding of the power of data that led Dr. Hoyt to found The Higher Education Practice. In our 2nd podcast, we asked him to talk about the work he has been doing with higher education institutions, especially regarding the three-year project he recently completed with the Association of Independent Kentucky Colleges and Universities (AIKCU).

This podcast is important because Ken discusses how he engaged with these colleges and universities to get them to capture and analyze their data, and then own the results so they could transform their institutions and better serve their students. You can read the analysis of Ken's work, "Optimizing Academic Balance (OAB): Mission, Quality, Market Potential, Cost, and Revenue," here.

Of particular interest to us at SAMC and the work we do in higher education:

Dr. Hoyt looks for the Key Performance Indicators on which a college should be focusing. All too often, institutions are not looking at the right data. They are focused on enrollment and retention but are unaware of how their own data can help them better attract, and retain, students.
He successfully got the independent colleges in Kentucky to see the benefit of cross-institutional analysis. As anthropologists, we also look across institutions, and even industries, to better understand which model works best in which setting.
He also helps organizations disrupt the myths which they have always held to be true, even when the facts are neither supportive of those myths nor trusted to change them. At one college he worked with, the administration was certain that minority students performed poorly when compared to (white) majority students. The facts said the opposite. The administration also thought that residential students did better than commuters. Wrong again.

SAMC helps organizations "see, feel and think" differently

There is so much information, along with exceptional insights, awaiting college leadership that wants to see things with fresh eyes. It really is all around them, if only they could see it. At SAMC, that's what we're all about: helping clients see things through a new lens, with fresh eyes.

About Ken Hoyt

The founding principal of The Higher Education Practice, Dr. Kenneth L. Hoyt is in the midst of a distinguished 30-year higher education career. He has served as president of Centenary University in Hackettstown, New Jersey, president of The Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges, Inc. (OFIC), vice president for The University of Akron, and in various campaign/fundraising leadership positions for Otterbein College and Baldwin-Wallace College.

Dr. Hoyt holds a Ph.D. in Higher Education Administration and Leadership from Ohio University, an M.A. in Journalism/PR from Ohio State University, and a B.A. in Business Administration/ Marketing from Baldwin-Wallace College. During his seven years at Centenary University, he transformed the institution, implementing a collaborative strategic planning model that led to unprecedented enrollment growth in the university's traditional, non-traditional/adult, online and graduate programs. Recently, Centenary was recognized by Intel as one of the top 50 wireless universities in the U.S. for its wireless IBM laptop campus.

To learn more about what's ahead for higher ed, check out these blogs and podcasts

Additional resources:

AIKCU OAB Project Final Report
The Higher Education Pra ctice
My book: "On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights"
Our website: Simon Associates Management Consultants

Download the 1-page synopsis of my book, "On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights" here

Want to be featured on an upcoming Podcast episode? Tell us more about you and you too can be on the brink of "soaring!"

141: Adam Honig—How To Explode Your Sales With Intuitive Technology Jul 08, 2019

Show notes

Adam Honig talks about empowering salespeople to reach new heights!

If you have a sales team out in the market, as most of us do, are they producing the results you want? How do you feel about your CRM (customer relationship manager) system which you paid $3 million to install but no one is really using? Perhaps your sales team is better than their results but they just need a hand? In today's podcast, I interview Adam Honig whose company, Spiro, has developed an entirely new way to help people sell. Think of it as your A.I. personal executive assistant that is very responsive to your activities and that reminds you every day what has to be done to better capture the right sales at the right time for the right client. We were very excited to hear about Spiro and learn what it can mean for business. You will be as well.

As you listen to our conversation, ask yourself a couple of things:

Why is my talented sales team not delivering the results we need to grow our company?
Why are my current clients not feeling that they are getting the ongoing support they need from us?
What could we do better if only…?

About Adam Honig

Adam is passionate about empowering salespeople to reach new heights through intuitive, user-friendly technologies. Having worked his entire career in the technology industry, Adam's specialty is building companies and organizations that sell and deliver enterprise software and solutions. For over 25 years, he has served on founding teams for multiple tech companies, built award-winning teams spanning from the US to Europe to India, and has learned invaluable lessons throughout the process.

Although much has changed in the technology business since 1989 when Adam began working at Cambridge Technology, he still lives and breathes by three abiding principles:

It's all about the business outcomes, not the technology itself.
You can never go wrong telling the truth, and it's never worthwhile to work with a jerk.
Being the category king should always remain your #1 goal.

Today, as CEO of Spiro Technologies, Adam lives out his mission of empowering salespeople by breathing new life into sales technology through AI and machine learning. (Spiro's name comes from the Latin spīrāre, which means "to breathe.") Together with the founding team at Spiro, Adam has developed and deployed tech solutions for over 300,000 salespeople in the past 10 years, and he continues to inspire sales teams to achieve success through strong relationships, successful sales strategies and inspired technologies.

To learn more about how AI can transform your business, check out these blogs and podcasts

Additional resources:

Spiro
Spiro "Welcome On The Brink listeners!" page
My book: "On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights"
Our website: Simon Associates Management Consultants

Download the 1-page synopsis of my book, "On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights" here

140: Tristan White—A Great Place To Work Starts With A Great Culture Jul 01, 2019

Show notes

Tristan White explains why culture is everything!

What if you started on your life's journey only to find out that it wasn't really what you wanted to do? Perhaps you thought you'd become a teacher, until you realized you were never going to love it. Or you thought engineering was your calling, until you found out you weren't very good at math. Today's interviewee, Tristan White, thought he was going to be a physiotherapist working with sports stars helping them stay healthy and agile, until he actually started doing it. Not loving it, he pivoted, and the rest, as he will tell you, is history. We can all learn from Tristan's story!

Building a company culture that works for you, your staff and those you serve

Tristan White, my guest today, is from Australia and our podcast was recorded across the globe. He is the founder and CEO of The Physio Co, a unique healthcare business ranked #1 on the Australian business magazine BRW's list of Australia's 50 Best Places to Work in 2014, a recognition it has earnedfor ten consecutive years, along with being named one of the Best Workplaces in Asia from 2015-2018.

Pretty impressive! And there's more. Tristan's story started like so many others. He had a dream of working in a job that inspired him. He didn't find that job, so he created it. In 2004, The Physio Co (TPC) was born with one team member: Tristan White. In the 13 years since, TPC has become a remarkable healthcare success story based upon fast growth and a thriving, systemized company culture.

A system and a book which teach you how to create a great place to work

Tristan's obsession with creating an inspiring place to work for himself and others has resulted in more than a decade of learning, testing and refining his system of building a thriving company culture, called Culture Is Everything. This system has guided The Physio Co. to 15 years of continuous and profitable growth.

His book of the same name, "Culture Is Everything," explains how you can achieve a successful culture in your own business or team. However, it is not a textbook, nor is it only for healthcare-focused organizations like Tristan's. It's an experience-share approach based on Tristan's journey. It's what we discuss in our interview, and it can be applied to any organization, regardless of size or industry.

What are the major ideas you will take away from this podcast?

We spend so much time working that we need to find a way to enjoy it.
We enjoy work when we're doing something useful for others.
We enjoy work when we feel proud of doing the right thing in challenging situations.
We enjoy work when there are defined boundaries around what we are doing, and we have some freedom regarding how we do it.
Every team, business and organization can create this "freedom within boundaries" environment that is the foundation of a strong future.

Want to dig deeper into culture? Check out these 5 podcasts

Additional resources:

Tristan's book: "Culture Is Everything"
Tristan's company: The Physio Co
My book: "On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights"
Our website: Simon Associates Management Consultants

Download the 1-page synopsis of my book, "On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights" here

139: Mark Samuel—Building Better Organizations For Amazing Growth Jun 24, 2019

Show notes

Mark Samuel explains how he helps people change and succeed!

My podcast guest today is Mark Samuel, execution and transformation expert, best-selling author, Forbes Coaching Council member and the CEO of IMPAQ Corp. Throughout the interview, Mark and I talk about areas of mutual interest and concern, namely, how to help organizations change. Frustrated with the challenges faced by people who truly hate to change, Mark created an approach that helps individuals in all stages of their lives step back and rethink what they are doing and how they can change bad habits into ones that get them where they want to go. Enjoy!

How do you get organizations to change?

Mark combines his degrees in organization development, applied psychology and applied statistics with over 30 years' real-world experience to help CEOs, business leaders, entrepreneurs and really, all of us, achieve breakthrough results. His unique approach has helped guide organizations around the globe to higher levels of long-term, sustainable success, and he is frequently called upon to solve the challenges of corporate culture change, performance improvement, leadership development and managed teamwork.

Mark is the author of the award-winning book, "Making Yourself Indispensable: The Power of Personal Accountability & Creating the Accountable Organization." His newest book, "B State: A New Roadmap for Bold Leadership, Brave Culture, and Breakthrough Results," launched in Fall 2018, is already an Amazon bestseller.

4 podcasts about culture change we recommend:

Additional resources:

Mark's books: "Making Yourself Indispensable: The Power of Personal Accountability & Creating the Accountable Organization and "B State: A New Roadmap for Bold Leadership, Brave Culture, and Breakthrough Results"
My book: "On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights"
Our website: Simon Associates Management Consultants

Download the 1-page synopsis of my book, "On the Brink: A Fresh Lens to Take Your Business to New Heights" here

138: Jack Knocke—The Internet Of Things Is The Future of Things Jun 17, 2019

Show notes

Jack Knock explains how IoT is changing business and our lives!

As you know, at SAMC we are very interested in exploring how new technologies are transforming businesses, higher ed, non-profits...everything. In this podcast, Jack Knocke and I talk about the Internet of Things. What is this IoT, anyway? Why should we be paying attention to how it's affecting industry, supply chains, the way we live? Can it help us streamline what we are doing now? Will the data that it's capturing offer us fresh insights into our business models and how they can become better, smarter? Lots of great questions. This is a wonderful session that you should dig in and listen to. The future's coming fast—listening to Jack is a great way to get ready.

Get up to speed with IoT

In this interview, we discuss IoT case studies and business model development utilizing IoT systems.

A little about Jack Knocke

Jack is visionary leader bringing energy into a room with enlightening business profiling, visionary ideas and implementation know-how. He founded his consulting business, IoT Advisor Group, to help IT solution providers add Internet of Things (IoT), cloud and telecom services to their portfolio.

Before starting his consulting business, Jack grew and managed one of the most respected Telecom Master Agents in the country, transforming a manual operation into a fully automated leader with management tools and processes that track every aspect of operations.

From analysis of a business to constructing a roadmap to success, Jack works with clients to build the systems, processes and vendor alignment necessary to meet strategic goals.

You can learn more about Jack at his website: www.iotadvisorgroup.com

3 podcasts about how IoT is impacting our lives:

Additional resources: