your moderator for this afternoon's part two of our workshop series as part of the AED virtual leadership conference. Just a few housekeeping things before we get started today. Keep in mind this could be a very interactive workshop. We want to get you talking with other people from different parts of the country, different backgrounds, different job responsibilities to kind of share your experiences and get you exposed to new perspectives, new ways of doing things. So with all of that in mind, we think you're going to have the best experience if you keep that video turned on, especially when it comes to the breakout sessions. All microphones have been muted at this time just to minimize noise and distractions that could take place. And if you would like to ask a question at any time today, please do not hesitate to use the chat feature. Also, we recommend turning off all of your apps except for Zoom for an optimal experience. And if you're uncertain about your internet speed, you can test it today at speedtest.net. Also, just a quick reminder that our three member networking receptions will take place immediately following today's workshop. There will be three different themes. You'll find more information about that in the chat. And with that, I'd like to turn it over to Dirk Beveridge. Thank you. Hey, Phil. Thank you, man. Good afternoon, everybody. Good morning. I am absolutely thrilled to be here. Hey, if you don't mind, as we get started here, would you put in the chat? I just said hello to everybody. And I'd love to know where you're joining us from, and then if you joined us yesterday. And the first two people, Roland from San Antonio, and you weren't with us yesterday. So thanks for coming today. And who was the second one there? Let me see there. It was Joshua from Montreal. And yes, you participated. So we got Wichita, Edmonton, participated, participated. Yes, yes, yes. So most of us have. Some have not. There you go. Lisa, I love you. Hubcap. Yes, that is me, right? All right. Thanks. I absolutely love it. So I see some of us were with us and some were not. So real quick before we jump in, let me tell you a little bit about what we're going to do and who I am. All right. So this workshop, the time we're going to spend together today is built around the thinking of the calling of leadership during unprecedented uncertainty. Okay. I am Dirk Beveridge. I'm the founder of Unleash WD. We're a design, innovation, and strategy firm who's absolutely committed to transforming legacy distributors into nimble and innovative market leaders. And done a lot of research throughout distribution, if you will, on the state of innovation change during disruptive times. All of that culminated several years ago in my book, Innovate, How Successful Distributors Lead Change in Disruptive Times. And I love days like today because I spend my life with organizations like yours, learning and understanding not only the challenges, but what are the best practices? How do we lead and innovate during disruptive and uncertain times? And so I'm absolutely thrilled to continue the conversation from yesterday. And let me just see who we got in here. So thanks for letting me know. We've got David from Indy. Super cool. Good to see you, man. Craig from Houston. You weren't here yesterday, so thank you. I'm going to give you a real quick update as to what we did yesterday and then flow in today. All right. So that those of you who weren't with us, Sioux City, Iowa. Hey, Dan, I was just in Sioux City, Iowa two weeks ago and I went down to the river and I toured Sergeant, what's his name, from Lewis and Clark's. The river's named after him. I went toward his boat in Sioux City. I loved your city. Absolutely loved it. And David, you're back for day two and the like. So guys, welcome. I see a lot of people still coming in. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So setting the stage and the context for the time today and for those of you who weren't with us yesterday, super quickly. All right. So what we all know is that this pandemic has created uncertainty and it's created crisis in our society, in our towns, in our businesses, to degree in our families, you know, with kids going back to school for the first day here in my hometown. And so yesterday I started by thinking about what does crisis mean to you and I in positions of leadership? And as I thought about it over the last 160 days of this pandemic driven crisis, to me as leaders, when I think about leading through this time, I think about calm, resolve, should inspire service, introspection, and strategic action. And as we have bring this calm, resolve to our organization, as we inspire, as we are inspired to serve our team, serve our customers, serve our company, serve our family. You know, we have to look internally in this regard today to our leadership and then ensure that we're still, even in crisis, thinking strategically, not just for today, but for tomorrow as well. And so we started yesterday, you know, just thinking about leadership. And we talked about, you know, these four types of leaders, our four individual leaders yesterday. And we talked about how, you know, leaders at times of crisis, we don't ask to be there, but we find ourselves at this moment in time. And I think great leaders realize that they were called to lead. And that's my premise today. It's my premise yesterday. I think the premise says that you and I find ourselves in this position right now, and we're called to lead our organization through unprecedented uncertainty. Uncertainty. And we need to think about what that means. How do we answer that calling of leadership? And so what we did yesterday is we started off in the first hour, sharing that there were three pillars, three pillars to leading during unprecedented uncertainty. And you see those three pillars. And in the first hour, we looked at these three pillars, leaning into our values, shifting our eyes towards the horizon towards tomorrow, and then thinking about and focusing on our people. And we looked at those in the first hour at a high level. Then yesterday, the second hour, we came in and we drilled down, and we talked about how we can really lean into our values. And we talked about localizing our values and localizing our guiding ideas as leaders. And if you weren't with us tomorrow, I think Liz is going to make that available to you so that you can really see and understand that. So today, what we want to do is we want to drill down on the last two pillars as well, on the need to lift our eyes towards the horizon, and to focus in on our people. All right. So first, does everybody understand where we're going? Let me know in the in the chat. If this makes sense to you. Yes. No. You got any questions right now? Just let me know real quick. Does where we what we did yesterday at a high level make sense? And do you see where we're going today? Okay, everybody? David, you say make sense? Awesome. Chuck? Yes. Marty? Yes. Matt says yes. All right. Pretty. Yes. Yes. All good. All right, Richard. Thanks. All good. So because Richard says all good. It's all good. All right. Let's, let's get going here. Alright, so rolling. Good. You weren't here yesterday, but you see where you're going. So good. That's what I wanted to do. Alright, so guys, let's, let's roll up our sleeves and really think about this. I'm going to move over to the third pillar. And then the second hour we'll talk about tomorrow. So let's talk about focusing in on our people. All right. And I think you all should have been able to download a PDF that has this framework for you taking notes kind of guide us through what we're going to be talking about today. And then you can use this in the breakout session as well. Okay. Alright, so here we go. So yesterday, we said that one of the three pillars was that we need as leaders during times of uncertainty, maybe now more than ever, it's critically important to focus on our people. And we've talked about, you know, how crisis we learned from Hurricane Katrina, you know, drives individuals like you and I into this depressed mood. And we talked about seven different criterias of depressed mood. And every single one of us said, yeah, we have those seven criterias, we've all experienced them, right. And our people have to. So right after we talked about focusing on the people, that's when we went into our first breakout session. And it was pretty interesting in the group that I was with, here are some words that came out as to key thoughts, key points that I as a leader have to think about, if we're going to focus on our people. In our breakout group, we talked about the need for empathy, right, we talked about the need for really caring about our employees. And we had to humanize our leadership, we had to humanize the job, and the environment, this remote for our employees. And so what I'd like to do is I'd like to build on that, when we say focus on your people, I'd like to drill down a little bit more in terms of what we learned during the breakouts of empathy, care, and empathizing for the people. And to do that, what I'd love to do is I'd love to introduce you to two amazing individuals that, there's four on the screen, I'd like to introduce you to two women in front, Marlene and Denise from two different organizations. I met Marlene and Denise last year, last November, at our Unleash Innovation Summit. Each November, we've had to cancel it this year, but we have a two-day Innovation Summit, it's absolutely brilliant, it's mind-blowing, the collaboration, the insights that come from the stage, I won't go into that, but it's absolutely a mind-blowing experience. And Denise and Marlene both came to that event last November for the first time. And I have to tell you, these two women on the screen have impacted me more than any individuals I've met in business in a long, long time. Both Marlene and Denise left our two-day Innovation Summit, and they reached out to me, and both of them said that these two days were, they both used the same words, both from two different companies, but they both used the same words, and they said it was life-changing for them. And I gotta tell you, I don't take that lightly. And so I needed to find out why it was life-changing for them, and so I reached out to them. And here's what Denise told me. Denise told me a story that she left our Innovation Summit with the courage, key word, she left our Innovation Summit with the courage to bring an idea forward to her leadership team. Now, hold on. Here's the key. That idea didn't come from being at our Summit. She left our Summit with the courage to bring an idea that was stirring in her soul for over a year. Think about it. She had this idea for over a year that she wanted to contribute, that she wanted to help move the organization forward. Dare I say she dreamed of making a contribution bigger than she was able to normally. And she walked around, she walked into work every day as the regional showroom manager for this distributor. She walked in every day, did her job, worked with her teams, but inside her she had this idea that she didn't have the courage to bring forward until she came to our Summit. And because of whatever happened, because of the way she was present during that Summit, she says to me she found the inspiration, the courage, she connected some more dots to bring this idea forward. And the story goes on and brought it to the team and it was all implemented and very cool. So can you relate to that? So let me see in the chat. Have you, let's say in the last six to 12 months, had an idea burning inside of you? And for some reason or another, you weren't able to bring it forward. You brought it forward and you were immediately dismissed. Can you relate to this story in any way? Yes? No? Because Denise, I don't think she's alone. And Matt, you say yes, exclamation point, exclamation point. Are there others that can relate to this? Any of you say yes? I know there are. Greg, you say absolutely. And so she changed my life. She has impacted me. And I think that there's more out there. Steve, you say absolutely. Mark, it has happened but not recently. Okay, thank you. Yes, culture training. Yes, yes, Laurie says. So that's Denise's story. Marlene came back to me afterwards as well and she said Dirk was life-changing. I had to find out why. And we got on the phone and we started talking about it and she started telling me about the idea she developed as a result of being at this summit. Again, the idea is not important here and how she's going back and implementing it. Getting her team together to drive this idea forward and the like to drive innovation in the organization. And then at the end, you know, I said why is it so important? Why was this life changing for you? And here's what Marlene said to me. Again, I'm going to ask you, can you relate to this? What Marlene said to me, you guys, was she said, Dirk, I have six years left before I retire. And she says, I need to know that I made a difference. Wow. Wow. Wow. Here's somebody with 30 years or so and she's got six more years till she retires. And she's still wondering if she's made a difference. Has it mattered that I was here? Can anybody relate to that? Have you ever, I don't know if it's the last six, 12 months, thought to yourself as you're driving in, as you're driving home, is what I do matter? Am I making a difference? Why am I doing this? Yeah. Look, the response is yes, yes. Every day, almost every day, all the time, all the time. And I got to tell you, you guys, Marlene and Denise has impacted me in a big, big way. And my message to you is just look at both of them. All of us on this call have had these same feelings, these same thoughts. And I can only imagine, I can only imagine that those people on your team are thinking the same thing. Again, real quick, we're going to move on, but do you agree with that? That if we're thinking these, if Denise and Marlene are thinking, you know, my gosh, do I have the ability to bring my ideas forward? Am I going to be heard? Can I really make an impact? And then as we're getting down towards the end of our career, six years left, have I made a difference? Can you see those on your team having those same types of questions? Again, let me know. Yes, no, maybe. In the chat, I'd love to hear that. I believe it's not just you. I believe it's not just me. I believe it's not just Marlene or Denise. I believe everybody on your team is thinking in that way as well. Yes. And Greg says, without a doubt, I agree. And so here's the thought for today. When we say leading during times of unprecedented uncertainty. Yesterday, we spent a lot of time thinking about, you know, the immediacy of this COVID, the impact of COVID on our work and the like. Today, I want to broaden it a little bit. And when I think about Denise and Marlene, and what I'm seeing here in the chat, my thought is this. My thought is that as leaders, right now, during this time of uncertainty, this is the absolute opportune time for you and I as leaders to think less about human capital and think a lot more about human spirit. I mean, I would absolutely love every HR department to strike out the word human capital and replace it with human spirit. Because when I see this picture of Denise and Marlene, I don't see human capital. I see two individuals with spirit that want to contribute. And I think that is absolutely true for the people on your team. So I love it, Greg. Thank you. That's a powerful statement. I think it's something we got to think so much about. So to me, and you guys, this is, I wish I could tell you, this is research based. I wish I could tell you that it's not. This is me thinking about Marlene and Denise and you and everybody else and what's going on with this COVID induced uncertainty and crisis and talking to people every day. And I really do believe we've got to think less about human capital and change the dialogue, change our thinking as leaders to human spirit. To me, human capital is when we talk about our people being our most valuable, what? Asset. I don't think Denise and Marlene are an asset. I think these are two individuals who have a soul, who want this soul to be alive and to bring that spirit to life every day in what they do every day. I think when we talk about human capital, we think about the job Denise and Marlene do. Look, I think it's greater than that as leaders. I think we need to be talking about how do we bring meaning? Think about the hours we all spend in our work. I think we need to be thinking about the meaning that we bring to their lives. Just think when we do that, how productive we're going to be. I think human capital, we talk about clocking in. Even in this pandemic age, I'm on Zoom meetings with managers every day and somehow, some way, we work into the conversation about the productivity of our people. Are they putting in the hours? Are they distracted at home? They might not have used it, but they're saying, are our people clocking in? And I'm saying that's human capital. I'm saying, man, there's opportunities for us as leaders to move our thinking forward and go beyond clocking in to saying, are we as leaders providing the environment for our people to want to be and are inspired every day? I think we can do that. Human capital, it's all about the tenure. It's about the years that people have put in and the like. To me, it's not about the tenure. It's not about the time. It's about the potential. Are we helping Denise and Marlene on our team achieve their potential? Because that's what they both told me after they left our conference. That's what they're working towards. And finally, human capital, it's all about human capital. It's all about the job description and the human spirit to me is about the impact. So just take a look at those two columns and look at the conversations and the thinking and the processes and then the interaction that we have with our team members if we look at them as human capital versus thinking our job as leaders is to unleash the human spirit. By the way, we still need to do the job. They still need to be there. We want them there for years. We still got a job to be done. But I think as leaders, we have the opportunity to have so much more impact. John, I would agree with you that it's important that upper management feels the same way. And I think we can have this conversation up and down and across the organization. And I think that's why you're here today if you agree with the premises to lead these types of conversations when you go back. And I know the slides are available to you and the recording is going to be available to you. So let me switch gears just a little bit. First, let me, before we switch gears, guys, John, I love your comment. Guys, is this making sense? Do you agree? Disagree? Thoughts? Questions? Agree? Yes? Disagree? No? Just let me get a feel for what you're thinking here. Agree. Yes. Spot on. Agree. All right. Cool. Cool. Thanks. Anybody else? Okay. Yeah. I love it. Thank you, guys. All right. So, all right. If we're tracking then, let's bring this thinking, you know, a little bit more tangible. Okay. You know, Dirk, I didn't know we were coming to a woo type. Now, let's bring a little bit more tangible. All right. So, to tangiblize it a little bit more, let's insert the word motivation to this conversation. All right. And when we say motivation, what comes to your mind? In fact, would you do me a favor, in the chat, finish this sentence for me. All right. Finish this statement. People are motivated by X. In business, right, if I were to motivate my team, people are motivated by what? What would you say? Go ahead. First thing that comes to your mind. Ah, yeah. Look at this. Yeah. Look at this. Yeah. So, I love it. We got a cross section. Pride, job satisfaction, incentive, strongly. I love these. Money, money, money, money, money, money, money, leaders, results, money, money, intrinsic value. Yeah. Money is the most common, but they want leadership. Yeah. I think, Steve, you just principle, praise, satisfaction, value. You guys got it. I love it. And I think I'm going to go back to what Steve Barrett said. Money is the most common, but they want leadership. And that's my premise here, right? Yeah. Most people, when we, the initial reaction is, it's all about the money, right? If somebody left the organization, they're going to say, well, they found, you know, 25 cents more. They found 20 grand more. Whatever it happens to me, right? They left for the money. That's what we, as leaders, I think we default to, as you suggested there, Steve. So, I appreciate it. But as you're all saying, there's really a lot more to it, right? Yeah. I love, Marty, what you said. Money seems to be the best answer, but they really do like public recognition. Yeah. And I think a lot more, right? So, yeah. So, guys, first, is money a motivator? Yeah, it is. It is. But is it the only motivator? No, I don't think, no, I know it's not, right? Just let's look at some studies, if you will, that supports this, right? So, in this book, Punished by Rewards, the research showed this. It says, when people are asked what is most important to them about work, money ranks well behind such factors, as you guys said, interesting work and good people to work with. Now, here, interestingly, when managers are asked what matters most to their employees, they tend to rank money at the top of the list. And then here, don't lose this part, all right? And then proceed to manage on the basis of that error. You guys make that note, and then proceed to manage on the basis of that error. So, I think a key point here for us is to really consciously, right, if we're going to lean into our people during times of uncertainty, we have to ask what inspires, what motivates. And if we think it's only money, that's going to drive our actions in one way. But if we understand that it's bigger, and they need more, that Denise and Marlene are on your team right now, and they want so much more from you as a leader, it's going to direct us to lead in a different way. Personnel Today reported on an employee motivation study in 2018. And in this survey, they found out what motivated people at work and what didn't motivate people at work. And this suggests what a lot of you have said in the chat, that there's more to it than money. What motivated people at work is that they were able to find a great life-work balance. They love the team that they're working with. My boss provides the recognition, the work environment, and they like the manager. They have a motivating manager and leader. What didn't inspire them is no career progression. Now, you guys think about this. Think about your businesses. In a lot of our dealerships, there's this perception or reality that there's no career progression. Would you agree? Yeah, because of the size of our businesses, right? That's a common thing. As leaders, please understand, it's going to sap motivation, inspiration, unleashing the human spirit if they don't see a way to progress and grow. It doesn't necessarily have to be with titles. That's what I'm going to challenge you to think about. What didn't motivate them is they don't have a good work-life balance. Their company doesn't give regular recognition, poor processes and technology. My work doesn't challenge me. So when I look at this, I think about the conclusion from this study. And here's how they concluded it. It says, when it comes to finding ways to motivate employees, employers need to understand that working the traditional 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. grind to earn a living is becoming a thing of the past. Do you agree with me? Say hallelujah. Say hallelujah. Do you agree? Yeah. It's becoming a thing of the past. Now, this is so insightful to me. People are allowing their jobs to shape their lives and are even basing life satisfaction on how well they're doing in their career and how happy they are at work, not just at home. Yesterday we talked about the weight of responsibility of leadership a little bit. People are allowing their jobs to shape their lives and even basing life satisfaction on how well they're doing in the career and how happy they are at work, not just at home. Gentlemen, ladies, I don't know about you but I think just that statement alone has put additional weight and responsibility on every single one of us. The role of leadership during this times of unprecedented uncertainty and beyond is absolutely critical, yes to your business, but this third pillar is leaning into our people as well. And I see that and what it just points me to again is that as leaders we need to think less about human capital and we need to think more about Denise and Marlene, more about the human spirit. So look at it another way if you don't mind, all right. So the Gallup organization, they understand the importance of employee engagement, motivation and inspiration and unleashing the human spirit. They don't use all those words to such a degree that they've developed a business practice around employee engagement. They've documented their thinking in the research in this book, 12 Elements of Great Managing and in this book they talk about the Gallup Q12 and what they've done as an organization is they've developed a benchmark to correlate how employees are engaged, motivated, inspired, spirit unleashed, to how productive they are, to the loyalty from their customers they're able to generate and ultimately the growth of the organization. Are you with me? All right, so then what they've done is they have done this research, they use these 12 questions to segment employees into three categories. Let's look at those three categories. The first category that they classify, one of three categories that your employees on your team could fall into, the first is engaged. The way they define this is engaged employees are employees who work with passion, Denise and Marlene I think, because they feel a strong connection to the organization, they work hard to innovate and improve. These are the engaged individuals. Second is the not engaged. These are employees who clock in because they're our most valuable asset and they have a job description. These employees do the work that's expected of them but they don't put in extra effort. Then there's the actively disengaged. These are employees that aren't just unhappy but these are individuals who are spreading their unhappiness to other staff. They've been looking at these three segments of employees for years. Their latest accumulation of research, they've got millions, but their latest has been January through June of 2018 where they looked at the responses from 30,628 employees. Guys, if you were to guess what percentage of employees are engaged, that highest level, why don't you just take a guess, wild guess, what percentage do you think Gallup reports employees are engaged at work? Put it in. Alright, yeah 25, 20, 30%, 10, alright, 15, 25, 25, 22, 30, mm-hmm, good, 35, 35, 25, 10, 20, 15 to 20, 25, 45, 30, 15, 45%, Dan says a 30%, alright, cool. Well you guys actually, I love it, if someone is less, so what does David say, if someone's less than 65% they need to get off the bus. David, I love it. And the company, it seems like, at our company, it seems like 85%. I love that, Lisa. That's because you know Hubcap. Is that fair? David, if someone less than 65% they need to get off the bus. You know, I would agree with that, generally speaking, but I also, David, love the thought that as leaders, I love the thought of before we evaluate somebody else, we need to evaluate ourselves, right? So yeah, generally, I agree, but before I say get off the bus, if they're not inspired, I'm gonna look at myself and say, have I created the environment? Am I leading in the way that I've earned the right for them to be on the bus, you know? So I love the thought, absolutely. Okay, so your guesses went anywhere from like 10% to 45 and 65%, a lot were that 25, 30%, and yeah, so 34%, their latest results, their latest report found that 34% of our employees are at that engaged level. Then what they found is that 53% are not engaged, and then that means that 13% are actively disengaged. So in my mind, the way my mind works, 34% are engaged, I love that, 64% of our team, generally speaking, one data point, is not engaged in the organization, and that is challenging for us, right? It's challenging for us because here's what Gallup reports from the research. Gallup's conclusion as a result of this is that non-engaged workers are significantly less productive. My definition of that is that our goals and objectives on our team are not going to be met. Gallup's conclusion about this 64% is that they report being less loyal to their company. I go back to yesterday's conversation and it suggests to me that our guiding ideas have no meaning. Gallup reports that non-engaged workers, 64%, are more stressed and insecure about their work. My definition of that is this rule. The rule says no one can work continually, productively, effectively in an environment of insecurity, right? If our people are feeling insecure and stressed and we want high productivity from them, it ain't gonna happen. And Gallup reports they're going to be less satisfied in their personal life, and my definition of that is that the human spirit is suppressed. So yes, we must, as we lead through times of uncertainty, lean into our employees, focus on our employees, but I think it's a great deal more than making sure that they're okay with the Zoom calls. I hope that's making sense. Talk less about human capital and more about the human spirit. So here's another way to look at it. I hope this this makes sense. Guys, here is a CEO of a material handling distributor down in Tampa and Orlando by the name of Jeff Fisher, owner of Florida Lift Systems, and we were able to customize their sales process for them over the years. So I've sat in a lot of sales meetings with Jeff Fisher, and every sales meeting he started by this story I'm about to tell you. He looked at his people all the time, says, look, we're not an ordinary organization, and I don't think you're ordinary sales people. He says, we are an extraordinary organization. I believe you're extraordinary, and we need to drive towards extraordinary results, and to drive that home, here's what he said. He says, let's take a look at the average Toyota dealer across this country, and what he said is the average Toyota dealer, if you simply open up the doors, you have Toyota at an orange logo, and you're selling a forklift that's orange. He says, just by the very nature of selling Toyota, the average Toyota dealer in this country has a 19% market share. That's it. You don't have to work for it. All you got to do is open up the doors, and because of our brand, because of the quality of the product, because of our marketing, because of the safety of the product that's built into the product, all of those things, open up the doors, Toyota dealer, you got 19% of the market. He says, but let's take a look at the left side. He says, there are dealers across this country that don't have 19%, they have 8%. They're selling in the same market, gets the same competition, in the same economic environment, same pandemic, whatever. He says, but because of the choices they make, because of what the employees bring to the table every day, are you with me? Because of what the employees bring to their job every day, these individuals, these dealerships, are only getting 8%. And then he says, let's take a look at the right side. He says, there are dealers across this country who don't have 19%, they have 31%. These are individuals, again, same competition, same product we're selling, same market environment, same customers, everything. But because of what their employees are bringing to the job every day, because our leaders are allowing them to come every day. They don't have 19%, they have 31%. He says, let's take a look at us. He says, we're doing pretty good. We got 27% share of the market. He then always says, but we got to learn more. We can do more as leaders, as sales. And then here's the key point that I wanted to get to. And then he looks at his sales team every time he goes. And what he says to him is this. He says, you have to decide where you want to live your life. You have to decide where you want to live your life. And you know, I have shown this slide, told this story for years, and I said, you know what? He's right. As an individual, I have to decide where I want to live my life. But since last November, I think of Denise and Marlene. And I think Denise and Marlene have decided where they want to live their life. They want to contribute. They want to be inspired. They want to be extraordinary. They want to achieve. They want to be challenged. But as leaders, now I'm thinking back, and I would go to back to Jeff Fisher and said, Jeff, have you created the environment to unleash your sales team to perform on the right-hand side? Because that's what leadership is all about. Yes, we want extraordinary results. Yes, we want our people to give more. But in the end, I do think it comes back to us as leaders. Are we providing that environment? Does that make sense, you guys? Yes? No? Give me, let me see. What, does it make sense to y'all? I'd love to hear. Yes, yes, yes. Thank you. Yep. Laura, thank you. Roland, thank you. David, Derek. All right, guys. So, leading during unprecedented times of uncertainty, we got to lean into, we got to focus on our people. And I think there's another level that we can. Several years back, Daniel Pink, New York Times best-selling author, New York Times best-selling book, Drive. The subtitle, as you see it, is the surprising truth about what motivates us. And it draws, his research draws from four decades of scientific research on human motivation, right? And his ultimate conclusion in this book, ready? Is this. He says, what motivates us once our basic survival needs are met is the ability to grow and develop to realize our fullest potential. What motivates us, what motivates your people, once their basic needs are met. And by the way, the salary, the pay you're giving them, their basic needs are met. What four decades of research is saying, says that we as leaders now need to shift our thinking, our leadership, to helping every individual on our team grow, develop, and realize their fullest potential. I love what you said, Steve. Thank you. It's up to us to create the environment for people who would go to battle with us. Agreed. God, I love that. Right? And if we help them grow, if we help them develop, if we help them feel their fullest potential, I think those are the ones who are gonna go to battle with us. Would you agree? Hallelujah, if so, right? I believe that to be true. Now, let me show you very tactically how one organization has done that for the last 20 years and continues to do it to this day. That company is Berlin Packaging. Berlin Packaging is now a global 1.4 billion dollar distributor of packaging products. When I started working with Berlin over 25 years ago, they were a 69 million dollar company and the growth of this company is absolutely unbelievable. What Andrew Berlin, the former CEO of the company, has attributed this amazing growth to is the culture. How they work with their team, how they work with their employees, the mindset of leadership in terms of the responsibilities for their employees. They say culture is the secret sauce that earns double-digit growth while competitors are stuck to the ebbs and flows of the economy. How does Berlin Packaging grow anywhere between 12 and 17 percent every year, year after year after year, when the economy is only growing at 2 percent? Well, that's the last 25-year history of Berlin Packaging. There's a lot to it, but one of the key factors is what they call their psychological contract with their employees. Think about that. Their psychological contract with their employees, okay? So, they have this psychological contract with the employee that says, if you come to work for Berlin Packaging, understand that we understand our role and promises and commitment to you. We commit to you six things, but as a result of that, we then are going to ask six things of you, and it's upfront. It's used in the hiring process. It's used in the one-to-ones. If you go to work for Berlin Packaging, you're gonna sit down with your manager at least once a quarter, and this psychological contract, this T-chart, is gonna be right there in front of you and your supervisor, your manager, to have that conversation, to make sure that Berlin is living up and you are also performing, alright? So, let me share this with you, okay? So, first, what does Berlin owe its employees? Well, what Berlin Packaging says is, if you come to work for us, the first thing we owe you is leadership. You know, yesterday in our breakout group, I think it was Eva, is that it? Who said, in this times of uncertainty, it's time for us to step up, right? And yes, we will lead this organization to success. You're gonna do it. We're gonna be their leaders. We owe you coaching and training, because why? What we know, how Gallup just told us, that people want to develop their skills. So, we're gonna coach, and we're gonna train you. If you think you come to work for Berlin today, and you're gonna leave next year, next 20 years later, with the same skill set, you've got another thing coming. Because we know that it's human nature that you want to grow and develop, and that's the third one, right? We're gonna give you a chance to grow. They've even figured out, in that ceiling, you know, when somebody's working in the branch, there's a branch manager for 20 years, they figured out a way, even if I can't give you a new title, we're still gonna give you a chance to grow. They figured that out. We owe you collegiality. We owe you a family-like environment, where we truly care for, and those aren't words, you're gonna find that we care for every one of our employees, like family. Job security. Not job security coming and just do the minimum, you got a job for life. No. Job security, because the foundation of this company, its growth, its profitability, you're gonna be secure. Remember that statement? No one can work continually, effectively, productively, in an environment of insecurity. They take that out of the mix. We owe that to you. And then rewards, right? The rewards, from recognition, to dollars, to bonuses, to profit sharing, and the like. All right? So, hey guys, would you do me a favor, just real quick, when you take a look at that left-hand side, Berlin owes the employee, what are you thinking when you see that list? Is there any commonality? What one or two words would you use to describe the commonality of all those six things that Berlin owes their employee? Does anything come to your mind? Safe place, okay? Investment in people, yeah, I love it. Positivity, Neil says, thank you, yeah, love it. Chuck, growth, yeah, growth and job security. Lonnie, ownership, wow, I love it. Derek says, motivating. Joe says, future, I love that. Retained workforce, Phil, you darn right Berlin has that. Loyalty, team, respect, purpose, teamwork, job security. Yeah, I love it, you guys. And so, I love what you're seeing there, because these are not just isolated things that they decided to do. They have a holistic way of leading in that organization, and yes, Daniel, thank you. Investing in the human spirit, and that's what I see connecting there, too. And then they say, now here's, they say, look, we're gonna invest in the human spirit, but then we are also going to ask these things of you. We're gonna ask for you to bring to us a strong work ethic. You're gonna produce for us. You're gonna bring ideas to us. We're going to ask you to be part of a team. We're going to ask you to be loyal to us. We're gonna ask you to be profitable for us, as well. And we could go into that, in each one of those, in another conversation. But I just want you to know, we invest in the human spirit, and now that gives us the opportunity to ask this of our employees. Okay, so guys, does this make sense for you? Real quick, and then I got one more thing for you, then we're gonna talk and go into breakout groups. Make it sense for you? Yes? No? How are you? Yeah, I'll go there. Yeah. Heather, Chuck, yes. Guys, Gil Amaro, I'm sorry. Help me with that. Yes. Matt, yes. Tim, yes. Roland, yes. I love it. Thank you. Greg, yes, sir. All right. I appreciate it. Okay, guys, so leading during unprecedented uncertainty, we have to focus on our people. And yesterday, we talked about it in one regard, and now we're opening it up, say, our role as a leader to unleash this human spirit. So, one other, very tactical for you here, all right, to help you really bring this to your organization, starting today, if you want. Guys, when we teach the sales process, we talk about something called a customer needs analysis, that if you're going to be effective in selling solutions, if you will, profitably, helping your customers, it all begins with customer needs analysis, identifying the customer's needs, and then bringing a solution to that need. Does that make sense? So, I like to take that same thought process. Okay, thanks. I like to take that same thought process of a customer needs analysis to leaders with our team. So, if we expect our sales team to do a needs analysis on our customers, my question becomes, when is the last time you as a leader have done a needs analysis on the employees on your team? What are their needs? What are they looking to achieve? Make sense? So, as we've worked with organizations, we've got probably a list of 50 to 60 type of questions that you could ask in this employee needs analysis. But let me start by giving you a 10, all right? So, to me, if we want to unleash the human spirit, you know, I might want to have a conversation with somebody on my team, and I might want to simply ask, why did you come to work for us? What did you see? What were you looking for when you came here? What excited you about this? I might ask him, in your position, what do you love most about it? What do you like least about it? Tell me about the job you do, what you like, what you don't like about it. I might ask him, what do you want to be doing three years from now? What are you striving for? What are you looking to achieve going forward? Four, I might ask, what does being successful mean to you? Everybody wants to be successful. Everybody. But I think we all have different definitions of being successful, right? Some might say, you know, make a million bucks before I'm 30. Some might say to get home by 3.30 every day to pick up my daughter from school. I think it's important to know how everybody defines it. Five, what motivates you to achieve your goals? What motivates you to be successful? Because it ain't gonna be easy to achieve that. So what's gonna inspire you? What's gonna motivate you? Somewhere we might work in the question something like, hey, how can I best support you in your effort to be successful? And maybe you might listen, and maybe you might write out five different things that they would like you to do, and have that in front of you on your desk. Say, here's what my team is asking of me every day to help them be successful. Am I doing this? Am I doing this? Am I doing this? Number seven, how often do you think you and I should get together to discuss things? How do you want to be managed? How do you want to be led? Do you want to be told exactly what to do, or do you want to have the ability to be creative on the job? Eight, who do you want to know about your successes? And there's bigger questions around recognition there, right? But it's really about how do you want to be recognized? And once you are being recognized for doing great things, who do you want to know? Cool. Yeah, maybe I'll send a handwritten note to your spouse, you know, and it might show you don't know what's going on. I don't know. Number nine, what skills, what talents, what capabilities would you like the job to bring out in you every day? What do you love to do? What are you good at? What are you passionate about? You've got a whole bunch of things that take you away from that, but man, if you could just bring that skill, that talent, that capability to the job every day, what would you just do away with, and what would you just want to be, which would unleash your human spirit, right? And then number ten, you know, how do you think I can help you be the best that you can possibly be, right? But this requires a type of leadership that has Denise and Marlene in mind, and it requires the type of leadership that says we're going to do a lot less talking about human capital on my team, and we're going to do a lot more talking about unleashing the human spirit on my team, okay? So guys, let me ask real quick, we're gonna go into breakout groups, but real quick, what's one thought, one word, one thought going through your mind as we're about ready to go into breakout? Anybody? That's not even a good question, but I'd love to hear what's going through your mind right now. I wish I could see you. Everything we've been talking about, what's one word that says what's going through your mind? Anybody? Okay, Steve, don't take reviews lightly. Matt, wow, cool, I hope that's a good wow. Gerald, you talk about potential, yes, thank you, right? As leaders, let's focus on bringing out the potential of our people and just think what that does to us achieving our goals and objectives as a team. Inspiring to be a better leader, thank you, Scott. Engagement, growth, take the time to know your people, Scott, boom, I love it, thank you. Value employees, hallelujah, thank you, Heather. Chuck, employee development, Jonathan, communication, Greg, we got to bring energy to the organization and to the team, absolutely love it. Okay, guys, so I love that the minds are going here and what I want you to do is I want you to get out of the classroom right now, right, with me and I want you to go and get together with others that are in this workshop together and the AED team is about to put us into breakout groups for 10 minutes, all right? And guys, use this time, you're gonna get together with some individuals who you don't know, all right, but you're gonna have the opportunity to share and, you know what, let go of yourself. Share honestly, be a little vulnerable and share with each other what you're thinking as a result of this pillar that if we're gonna lead through unprecedented uncertainty, we have to focus on our people and so here are some questions that I'd love for you to bring to your group and here's what I recommend, 10 minutes, you know, why don't you go around the room real quick, I don't know, but do you agree that we as leaders can do more to move from human capital to human spirit and if so, why and if not, why not? That's a fair question, all right, and have that conversation and then, you know, as you see the clock ticking down to five, four minutes, you know, share a key takeaway, you know, on the bottom of this framework, this PDF, it says what are your key three takeaways from what we just discussed in the last hour, you know, hopefully you can write down three key takeaways and then why don't you share, if you have time then to, to share one of those key takeaways and its relevance to your business or leaders, okay? So they're gonna bring you into the breakout groups, I'll see you back here in 10 minutes, okay guys? Go and have that conversation, please, enjoy it. about me before we left, ha, he slams a Red Bull. No way out, I love it, all right, thanks. So, hey, Phil, can I call you in just for a moment? Phil, are you there? Hey, Dirk, it's Kristen. It looks like he is coming back right now. Okay, super cool, thank you, I appreciate it, Kristen. All right, Dirk, it looks like we have pretty much all of our attendees back at this point from our breakout session. All right, awesome. Phil, I'm just curious, were you sitting in a group yourself? I was, I was in breakout group 11 with some friends from really kind of across the country. Great, great. From that group or any others that you saw, were any key points risen that made sense to you? Yeah, you know, actually, Dave Wilson from Westside Tractor Sales made some good points. I think he might actually be stealing all of your content from this workshop today based on his remarks, but. You know what I say, Phil, hold on, Phil, just real quick. Yeah. So, who is that, Dave? Dave Wilson, yeah, we can bring him in here. So, okay, will you please, real quick, if you don't mind. Oh, boy, here we go. Hey, Dave? Yes, sir. Look, man, you are free to use anything you want here, but just don't get too good at it, all right? All right, I don't care to travel as much as you do, so it's all right. That's a guarantee. Go ahead, Phil, I'm sorry. Yeah, no, Dave was just talking about the value in the contract that you talked about. I don't know, Dave, you wanna talk a little bit about where you might see that as a good fit for the organization? You might? In that, when we do interviews, I always make sure I include a card with our core values on it. I love it. We talk a lot about our core values, and before we even talk about the skills of the applicant, we talk about what are their core values, what are our core values, because if we don't have a match there, then let's just not even bother with the rest of this conversation, because this marriage isn't gonna last. I'm thinking that the contract would be another thing to add onto there. Oh, on top of our core values, by the way, here are our expectations. Here's what we are gonna promise to you, but here's what I think we're gonna expect from you in return. And again, just like our core values, if that doesn't jive with you, that's perfectly fine. Let's identify that now. We're only out an hour time, no big deal, and you go left, we go right, we go about our day. So I think that's something I'm gonna look at, including in future content for us. Boy, I love that, David, thanks. Just off the top of your mind, any thoughts relative to one or two of the things that you would wanna put on your side of that column that we owe our employees? Well, a lot of the stuff you had on there I thought was pretty good, turned heat off the shelf, but I would likely incorporate some of our own core values onto there as well. Like, for example, what I expect from you is to be that guy that just makes it easy, right? What I expect from you is an absence of toxicity. Yeah. I expect for you to be honest and do what you say. Those types of things that, and those are really not, those are just go, no go, or I need 10 out of 10. I don't want someone who's kind of toxic or just a little toxic, I need zero. I need the absence of that period altogether, because if you're gonna be a little toxic here, then I need you to go be a little toxic somewhere else, that this isn't the place for you. Really well said, I love it, thanks. Hey, and I appreciate you saying that what had Berlin had on their left side, right? You know, it's a good place to start. I would encourage you to start there, because again, they didn't just select those, they did deep, deep research on why employees leave companies, right? And they said, if this is what people leave companies, we need to ensure that we provide these things to our great employees. So I do think it's a great starting point. David, thank you, man. I'd love to stay in touch, see how you do with that. Yeah, thank you, sir. Really appreciate it, thanks. Cool, so real quick, I should have said this when we come back. Does anybody, if you have in the chat, just give me a big yes real quick, if you have something that you'd like to share that came out of your breakout group, anybody? So here, Lisa, can I share? So Lisa says, I love what Walter Holt said in our group. Hey, can we bring Lisa in? Do you mind? Let's try to bring Lisa in, rather than me just reading it. Do you mind? Lisa Bennett, can we pull her up by chance? Hey, Dirk, how are you? Well, I am, I'm a hubcap, man. You are. Yes, I am. So thanks, Lisa. I really appreciate this, thanks. So can I just read it? And then I'd love your- Absolutely. So Lisa says, I loved what Walter Holt said in our group. He said, it starts with you, meaning the leader. Yeah, absolutely. Look in the mirror and commit to focusing on the human spirit. Can you share a little bit more about that conversation? Well, what was interesting is that we actually were pushed right back into this session. And so I wanted to hear more of what Walter Holt was going to say with that, because one of the things that I was thinking is whether you're in a leadership position or not, it's also about how you treat each of your employees and even your colleagues. I know that appreciating each person for their value is something that's really important, whether you're managing that person or your colleagues. And so I was interested to hear more actually of what Walter Holt was going to say. I didn't mean to put him on the spot and maybe bring him up as the presenter, but I thought that was very insightful. And then we got pushed back into the general session. Lisa, thank you for that. So Phil, I see you back on. Can we pull Walter in? Yeah, we can try to grab Walter here. All right, Walter. Possibly. Yeah. Okay, there he is. All right. Afternoon, everybody. Yeah, that was one of the things that I try to practice myself is, you know, instead of the human capital or there's a cost associated to it, it's the human spirit, it's free. And it starts with you by looking in the mirror every day and making that commitment to yourself. Recognize somebody that you work with, somebody that's in your group. Appreciate sincerely somebody within your organization. You know, it's easy to say, hey, you did a good job, but what specifically did I do well? And highlight that, and then learn something new from each of your team members, at least one item every day. I have a vast territory that I cover, several stores, and the communication doesn't flow through immediate because I'm not in one location. So I try to recognize those folks and appreciate them every day, day in and day out. And then, you know, the last message here was something that everybody's heard is rinse, lather, and repeat. And do that consciously every day, day in and day out, especially as a leader out there. Yeah. Well, I love it, Walter. Thank you so much, so much there. And I loved how you set the stage with human capital has a cost, human spirit is free. You know, and what great foundation for us in terms of, as you say, really appreciating someone and helping them grow, develop, and unleash that spirit. So I appreciate that. Walter, thank you. Lisa, thank you for bringing it to our attention. Really appreciate it. Okay, everybody? So hey, guys, that's great. I love the conversation that you all had. And let's, if you don't mind, continue on with the last part of this workshop, the calling of leadership during unprecedented uncertainty. What we all know is that there are three pillars that we wanted to talk about yesterday and today on this leaning into, leaning during these unprecedented times. A, we need to lean into our values. Two, we have to focus on our people. And three, what I'd like to end on here is a conversation about the importance of tomorrow. And one more time, you guys, there is an extra handout for you here. If you printed it off, take notes, capture your key takeaways, and we'll use these in our last breakout of the day as well. All right, so tomorrow. Guys, today, according to my count, is day 160 of the new normal. Each day in my journal, I write down what day it is. It was March 13th to me when I realized coronavirus is gonna just change everything. And so today is day 160 of the new normal. On day 38 of this new normal, I published an open letter to distributors titled Shift to Tomorrow. And if you're interested, you can actually write down this URL, shifttotomorrow.com, shifttotomorrow.com. And you'll see my thought that the first 38 days, we worked hard securing the business. I'm gonna talk about that in a bit. But it's time as leaders, certainly on day 38 and certainly now on day 160, that we lift our eyes towards the horizon and think about not just leading through, but coming out stronger on the other side as leaders shifting our thinking and our mindset to actually come out stronger on the other side. I start this, the very first quote I use to set the stage for this open letter to distributors, Shift to Tomorrow. I use this quote from Henry Kissinger that was in the Wall Street Journal on April 3rd, you see there. He said, the historic challenge for you and I as leaders right now is to manage the crisis while building for the future. And wow, I think that's so grounding for all of us, right? Leading during unprecedented uncertainty. Yes, I agree with Dr. Kissinger. We have to manage the crisis, but we have to continue building for tomorrow. And in my open letter, I call that innovating for the other side. And as leaders, we cannot, I don't believe, take our eyes off our roles and responsibility to build the organization, to innovate, to drive the necessary change, transformation, yes, innovation to come out of this stronger on the other side. And a lot of people have talked about not just surviving, but thriving. Yeah, I think it's great mindset. How do we do that? So how do we do that is, I had a chance to sit down on one of my Sunday Shift to Tomorrow programs with Rick Fantham, who's the president and CEO of a national North American plumbing and HVAC distributor by the name of Ajoka. Rick Fantham is an amazing man. He's an amazing leader. And I asked him, how is he helping his leaders understand how to lead to get to the other side of COVID-19? And you guys, his four phases is pretty telling. And so as leaders, let's take a look at what Rick Fantham is asking all of his leaders to think about in terms of leading towards tomorrow. He said, there's four phases that we're gonna go through as an organization. First is the resilience phase. Second is the readiness phase. Third is the reliability phase. And fourth is the recovery phase. And he said, the very first phase, the resilience phase, is when we were zeroed in on the safety of our people. The safety of our people became the overriding priority, right? In that mid-March, when this coronavirus was gonna change society, change the business, the only thing that mattered is the safety of our people. And we have to put their health and safety first. And what he said was, at Hajoka, they did that. He thought it was gonna take longer, but they were able to make the pivots to do what was necessary, the remote working, social distancing, put all those things in place in seven days. And he said, we were able to take a look at that in the first seven days, we took care of it. He said, so we quickly moved from the resilience phase to the readiness phase. And the readiness phase was, all right, now that our people are safe and healthy, now what we have to do is we have to protect our business. The protection of the business for sustainability becomes a priority. That's when we have to stress test our business. What happens if, because of this pandemic, we lose 20% of our sales, 30%, 50%, 60%. This is when they had to make some tough calls, when they had to make tough calls in terms of furloughing individuals, taking hard look at branches and the like, taking a look at what it was going to require to ensure that the business can be sustained during whatever this pandemic throws at us. And he said, we have to make sure that happens. And he called that the readiness phase. And he said, that took us about 30 days. And then he says, and he looks at his team and he says, as leaders, we now need to move from the readiness phase to the reliability phase. And the way he defines the reliability phase is now it's time to play to win. The first two phases were defensive. Now it's time to get on the offense. In the midst of this crisis, in the midst of uncertainty, our mindset has to shift from defense to offense, from surviving to thriving. We must play not to lose, we must play to win. And he says, this is going to be the longest and hardest part of what we do as leaders. And he still doesn't know when this is going to end. We are in the reliability phase, playing to win today. And then when we do that, as we're innovating for the other side, when everything, when we're on the other side of this pandemic, when things open up, when the vaccination is here, and when we're traveling again, we can go and see our customers, all that. He says, we are going to be in a position. We are going to be in a position to seize those opportunities, to grab that growth that's going to happen when that positive economic growth happens. So I love Rick's thinking for us as leaders, that our mindset has to shift from getting through this to playing to win. Does that make sense to you guys? Let me see. Do you like what Rick suggests as a framework for us as leaders in terms of the approach and the mindset and what we bring as leaders to our organization, to our team day in and day out? Scott says, yes. I really think it's important, this mindset shift that we lift our heads to the horizon and that we're playing to win. Yes, good stuff. Great way to stay on track, David said. Chuck says, yes, absolutely. I love it, thanks. Others, let me know what you're thinking there, okay? All right, so to me, shifting to tomorrow is all about this mindset that Rick tells us that we need to bring every day, this mindset of playing to win. Steve says, yes, forced companies to promote social media, not in person, as the buyers buy this way. Absolutely agree. That's a way to play to win, right, Steve? Yeah, absolutely. So shifting to tomorrow is all about this playing to win. So as some of you know, I was sitting in on parts of yesterday's meeting as well, and I heard Dick Stort say this. Yesterday during Dick Stort's session, what he said was, a leader's number one job is to understand reality and lead adaptation of the organization. Think about that. I think he's saying the same thing as Rick Vantham. Our job, Dick Stort yesterday said to us, our job as leaders is to understand the reality of what's going on and then lead the organization to win, lead the organization not to just get through, but to get to the other side, and that's gonna require change. It's gonna require adaption. It's gonna require growth in different ways within the organization, and I agree with Dick 100%. So real quick, in the comments section, guys, with this concept of play to win, what prevents us day in and day out from playing to win? Any thoughts there? If you had to think, yeah, you know, that makes so much sense, but we're on our heels still. Yeah, you know, not a lot has changed, I don't know. Maybe that's not a good statement. But is there anything that comes to your mind that could prevent us from playing to win in this moment of uncertainty? A time, Steve says. David, sidestepping issues. Sean, I think, talked about that yesterday, right? And I hopefully gave a model to think about that, not to sidestep the problems. I like it, yeah. Steve, fear, I think certainly enters into it, absolutely. Not having everyone on the same team, on our team, on the same page, Matt suggests. Yeah, I agree, I agree. How about this? Uncertainty in other areas, societal, schools, churches. Yeah, Daniel, I like it. Marty says, ourselves, hmm, interesting. To be conservative and overcautious, Marty says. We need to be smart, but not forgetting we still have to do business. Love it, Marty, thank you. Joshua, thank you, routine, yeah. Yeah. Craig, yeah, there's a problem we gotta solve, right? Accessibility to customers, absolutely. Preventing us from playing to win, yeah. How about this one? Put this picture up on the screen, I think it captures it. Has, in the last 160 days, since this uncertainty has been swirling around, has anybody here, yes, no, I'd love to see in the chat here. Has anybody ever driven home, thinking to themselves, my God, where did the day go? Trying to just start thinking through? You know, this is getting, this is getting a lot of response. More so now than ever, David, that's interesting, yeah. Yes, daily. You know, have you ever, you know, you're going home tired, you know? You're worn out, literally, worn out. Don't have the energy that you want to bring to your family and everything, and thinking, damn, I was busy. But what did I accomplish? Anybody else? Go home thinking that. You know, we know we're supposed to be playing to win. But going home, you know, with this type of mindset or the like, right? Yeah, I think we all have in the last 160 days. Because I think one of the things that stops us from playing to win is what I call the tyranny of the urgent. Oh, I love what David says. Sometimes, yeah, but I've been working on being deliberate to get tasks accomplished, being intentional. God, I love that. I love that. Yeah, I think one of the things that stops us, certainly in this uncertainty, in times of crisis, always, but maybe even more now, is this tyranny of the urgent, where does it seem, again, yes, no, let me hear your thoughts in the chat, where it seems like every day, what our job really is, is not to think about tomorrow, not to think about building for tomorrow. It really seems like our day, our, our job is to think about tomorrow. And I think that's what we're doing. It really seems like our day, our job is to put out fires, to solve the immediacy of the crisis of the problem that our employees have, that our supplier has, that our manufacturer has, that our customers have, right? These fires, these crises are popping up every day. Marty says, this has gone on longer than anyone has expected. It's wearing on all of us. I agree. We have to get out of our own way and do business differently. But yes, productively and effectively, yeah. So guys, I think this concept of the tyranny of the urgent is something that we have to address as leaders. You know, as one CEO said to me, he recently said, you know what, Dirk, the majority of distributors are dealing with the day to day. And I think we as leaders, if you're a service manager, if you're a parts manager, if you're a sales manager, if you're a regional manager, hell, if you're the president, if you're the branch manager, if you're the HR manager, finance manager, I think that's what happens in business is we get stuck in the day to day. So let me see if this resonates with you guys. As I've been thinking about this over the last 60 days, I developed this concept, this thought process that I call the tyranny, from the tyranny of the urgent to the freedom of strategic. And so, you know, this is how I think. This is my mind map of as I was thinking this through. But what do I mean by the tyranny of the urgent moving from the tyranny of the urgent to the freedom of the strategic? Let's take a look at this, if you don't mind. So guys, I think when we get trapped in the tyranny of the urgent, when we're being that firefighter, when we're going home tired, worn out, but asking what did I accomplish today? What I'm thinking is what we're saying is, slave might be too strong of a word, but what we're saying is that somebody else's agenda has taken control of my agenda. Somebody else's agenda has taken control of my agenda. Whereas if we bring the mindset of having freedom of being strategic, what that says is that as a leader, I'm going to make the decision, I'm going to decide what's important, what has meaning and what has purpose. When we're trapped in the tyranny of the urgent, I think what we're doing at best as a leader is we're restoring things as to how they were. There's no growth, there's no improvement, there's no progress. We're solving that crisis of the day and we're bringing things back to the way they were. Whereas if we bring this mindset of the freedom of being strategic, even during this uncertainty, this is where value is created because we're gonna build something that didn't yet exist. And really that's what leaders do, right? Leaders bring individuals or organizations from point A to point B, we're not there yet. We create something that isn't yet exist, a process, a system, a solution, new ways of value. When we're trapped in the tyranny of the urgent, I think we've ceded control not just of our day, but our dreams and of our potential. Whereas when we bring the mindset of having the freedom of strategy, being strategic, it gives us control no matter what the world, no matter what the competitors, no matter what happens in the market, no matter what the pandemic throws at us, it says we are analyzing all that, we're analyzing all that, we're making decisions, we're strategically building not just for today, but for tomorrow as well. And lastly, I think when we bring this mindset of the freedom of being strategic, I think it says that as leaders we're acknowledging that there's something more, there's something better. So guys, as I've looked at this uncertainty that's swirling around, a model has evolved that you see on the screen as to how we can build for tomorrow, how as leaders we can strategically think differently about leading our team, our unit, our organization, our business, not just for today, but for tomorrow. And I'm gonna go through it relatively quickly, all right? And what you'll see here is that there are three phases that if we are going to lead for tomorrow, the first thing I think you have to do as a leader is you have to spend time thinking about the new rules of business. I think what you and I can agree is that there are trends, there are forces that are happening right now that are going to change the way business is done going forward. Do you agree with me? If so, give me a yes. Let me see if we're tracking, all right? Do you agree with that? There are things happening right now that are going to change the way business is done, that are going to change the way our customers wanna do business, the way they wanna buy. There's gonna be new rules of business in terms of what our employees want and what they expect out of their job, right? We could go on and on and on. In fact, I think there's different ways that we can look at that, right? But there are new rules that are being rewritten today. And then I think as leaders, you and I have the responsibility to set time aside, get away from the tyranny of the urgent and start thinking about what are the new rules? What are the new rules of service going forward? What are the new rules of rental going forward? What are the new rules in the heavy equipment industry going forward? What are the new ways of selling going forward? There are new rules of selling being rewritten today. And as leaders, we have to think about that. And so the first thing we wanna do if we're gonna be thinking towards tomorrow is we have to define these new rules. I see you all agree with me, all right? So we have to think about how are we gonna define those new rules of how business is gonna be done. Now, once we define those new rules, as a leader, the second phase that we're gonna wanna think through, sit down and think through, is ask ourselves, where are the profit opportunities going to be? Where and how is value going to be created as a result of these trends and forces? So the profit opportunities that were there yesterday may have evolved as a result of COVID. Boy, I really hope that you were taking great notes with Dick Stewart yesterday when he talked about the business models and rent to own and rent to rent and the like. I mean, profit opportunities are being redefined as we speak. And as leaders, we have to see where capital is going to flow and how we as an organization can seize that opportunity. And where we as an organization and my unit, my service department, my finance department, my HR department can contribute to us seizing those new profit opportunities. Does that make sense? Yes, no, let me see, all right? So one, we've got new rules of business. Number two, then we gotta see what those new rules are gonna suggest in terms of where profit opportunities are gonna be. And then the third thing we need to do is we need to have a plan. As a leader, your team is looking to you to have a plan. They're looking, to me, I think the scariest moment for any leader would be that moment in time when a key employee on my team comes to me and says, Dirk, man, whew, we've really done a heck of a great job for the last 160 days managing through this coronavirus. But Dirk, what's our plan going forward to strengthen our organization, to strengthen our unit, to become better, to come out stronger? That day frightens me if I don't have the time to think about what are the strategic moves we as a team, we as a unit need to make going forward? And do we have the ability to put that into us, I call it a strategic sequence of moves that my team and I are going to agree to to come out of this stronger on the other side. We call that powering ahead. So guys, as you take a look, there's a lot more to it, but there's those three phases. Do those three phases make sense to you as we look to lead, not just for today, but build for tomorrow? One more time, can I see in the, is this making sense for you in the comments section? Any questions, let me know. You know, Phil, and you know, if people have questions for you as well, jump on in, all right? I don't know if we made that clear, but yeah. Okay, yes, yes, yes, making sense. All right, boom, Steve, boom. I love it, thanks. Okay, so guys, once we do that, I love the thinking of Steve Riddell, who is the Chief Sales Officer for Blinds.com, and one day he was on our stage, and what he said was this, and I think it's so telling for us as leaders, as we lead during this uncertainty, he said, what you wanna become is more important than what you are today. And I think that's a really grounding statement for you as a leader right now, right? What you wanna become, where you wanna lead your organization to, your unit to, your company to, what you wanna become on the other side of this, I think is more important than where you are today. We are where we're at, we've done an amazing job, but now we've gotta lead for the other side, okay guys? All right, so let me tell you a quick story about how one leader took all of this, leading for the other side, and what he did in his organization during the Black Swan event, and hopefully you can learn from it, okay? So, let me introduce you to Brendan Dealy. Brendan Dealy right now is the CEO of Banner Solutions. He's the former CEO of L&W Supply, a building materials distributor from those years you see on there. During his tenure, he grew L&W Supply from 800 million to two and a half billion dollars in revenue. Now, smack dab in the middle of that was the 08 and 09 financial and housing crisis. And think about being a building materials distributor during those times, you guys. You can only imagine the disruption, what happened, what happened to their sales. And so, as they're going through the housing crisis, Brendan Dealy realized that, you know what? We really aren't that differentiated. We are number one in the market. We are the largest, but we're still not that much different. And there's 20 other people in every city we're in that really do the same thing as us. So what he decided to do was to use this moment of uncertainty to get his management team together to say, let's come out stronger. And so what he did is he got his key employees around a table one weekend, and he said, team, here's your mission. Here's our mission as a team, as an organization. He said, I'm gonna ask you to do three things. Number one, I need you to commit to get away from that tyranny of the urgent to lean in, to coming out of this stronger. And the first thing I need you to do is commit to develop a plan, strategic sequence of moves, so that we come out of this stronger than we went in. The second thing he told his team is right now, this is a time I need you to think bigger and bolder than you ever have. Look, during this uncertainty, incremental change. Look, we just talked about new rules of business happening. You all agreed. We have to think big about how those new rules are going to demand that we become something different on the other side of this. And then three, he says, I want you to change the rules of the industry. This pandemic is changing the way business is done. We need to be on top of that. We want the mindset of changing the rules of the industry. And so he sent them to think about how they're gonna do that. And when he sent them on his way, here's the story he told them. He said, guys, L&W Supply is like a big aircraft carrier out in the middle of a storm. He says, look, that aircraft carrier, it's big, it's safe. Our enemies think it's unassailable. He says, that's L&W Supply. He said, but if we're really honest with ourselves, and here's the key point I want you to take away from the story, you guys. He said, if we're really honest with ourselves, he says, don't tell our suppliers this. Don't tell all of our employees this. Don't tell our customers this. He said, if we're really honest with ourselves every day, what you and I are doing as we're in this ship, in this storm, we're running below deck into the bilge every day, and what are we doing? We're bailing water just to keep this thing what? Going. He says, we need to have the mindset of how we are operating is not working. You guys lock onto that. I'd really write those words down. How we are operating is not working. Hey, we're doing good in this pandemic. We're selling equipment. People are coming in and renting every day. But we need the mindset of how we are working, how we are operating is not working, and our job is to solve that. So what they did is they went, and they did a whole bunch of work. I won't tell you everything, but they went and researched the industry. They said, what are the new rules going to be? What are our capabilities? How do these capabilities look on the other side of all of this? They went and talked to their customers, said, what do you think is gonna be happening? What are your challenges? What are your pains? And they got in the minds of their customers. And what they said is there's no meaningful standards in the organization. So from there, they went to work to reimagine the business. You guys, and my point is this is your opportunity as leaders to reimagine your business, to reimagine your unit, to reimagine your team and how you go to work. In their case, they developed the customer journey. And they looked at every single touch point of that customer journey. And they said, can we improve every single one of those touch points? And that's what they did. And they completely transformed their organization. And that's what catapult. They used this Black Swan event to catapult them to drive growth, to come out stronger on the other side. Okay, you guys? So the third pillar is we must come out of this stronger on the other side. And what I'd love for you all to do right now is to take a look at your notes and think about our typical days at Tyranny the Urgent. Think about that freedom of the strategy, the need to build for tomorrow, if you don't mind, taking what we learned from those three phases of building for tomorrow, defining the new rules, looking for new profit opportunities, developing a strategic sequence of moves. And I'd love for you to think about your key takeaways there and then we'd love to send you into a breakout group one more time for eight to 10 minutes here. And would you please do two things. A, share that key takeaway and its relevance to your leadership in business. And then I think the third bullet point there is what do you do or what can you do to escape this Tyranny the Urgent so that we can bring that play to win, that strategic mindset to come out stronger on the other side? I'd love to hear some key ideas there, okay? So there's your assignment. Let's go into the breakout group. Let's continue to have great conversation. We'll come back and I'll ask Phil to help me with pulling out what are some of the learnings from the breakout group, okay guys? I'll see you at eight to 10 minutes. breakout sessions. I'm sure everybody was really scared to see which one the moderator was gonna be in. I fear that they would be called on. Don't worry, I have a name in mind if there is somebody you'd like to talk to. But with that, I'll pass it back over to you. No, I appreciate it. And Phil, just a high level. Can you tell me about the conversation? Just high level in your breakout group. I know we're running up on time. And by the way, if anybody would like to share something that they brought to the breakout group or you heard somebody else say, like Lisa talked about the other gentleman, I'd love to hear it in the chat though. And then we'll call on you. But Phil, just high level. Yeah, so I think for most people in our room, like today's been a really good day to just kind of take a step back and reflect, do a reset, kind of reinvigorate themselves on some just really fundamentals of leading, especially like it during a time of uncertainty. And I would say that if there was one person in our group that kind of talked pretty eloquently on it there at the beginning, it would have been Gerald Hubbard from Murphy Tractor. So I don't know if you would like to kind of step in and just kind of recap some of the things he kicked off that breakout session with. Yeah, is he available? I'd love to. Let's see. Thank you. Gerald? Yep. One of the things I was saying that, you know, identifying going through the process during this time, we talked about one of the questions came up was, is our leadership supporting us? And I said, actually for us, the answer was yes. We were lucky enough not to be shut down. So what we did was we made some changes in how we did business but still were able to meet the needs of our customers. You know, from like curbside pickup for parts to non-contact for customers dropping off machines for service and of course, utilizing the social media for the salesman and stuff. So I think from that standpoint, we did a good job and we got a lot of support from our leadership that drove that to make and they approached it from, we want to continue to work. And so from a people standpoint, I thought that was a great way to do that. Yeah, really cool Gerald. Thank you so much for sharing that. You know, as you're thinking or as you're talking, you know, what's going through my mind is how you all pivot it, right? To do those things that you described to take care of your customers and the like. Tying that into what we just talked about shifting to tomorrow and, you know, coming out strong on the other side. I really encourage you guys, I might have gone through it a little bit too fast. I encourage you to think of those three phases that I outlined for you. You know, there's really three phases that we can think about. Number one, what are the new rules? And just think about some of the examples that Gerald said there in terms of serving the customer. The question as leaders that we could be asking ourselves is, which of these changes, which of these pivots are going to endure, right? Some might go away on the other side, but some are going to endure. And having deep thought and conversations around that to see if we need to build enduring solutions is, I think, super critical. So really thinking about defining those new rules as to how business is going to be done is very, very important. And I think now is the time to do that. Second, having that mindset and thinking about, you know, where is profit going to be created on the other side? Again, Dick gave a lot of great insight on that yesterday, I know too. But walking through that process, how can our department continue to add value and create profit for the company going forward? And it might not be the same as it was a hundred and sixty days ago. And then as a team, I'm really encouraging you to have those conversations and develop a sequence of moves to say, we are going to generate this improvement. We're going to generate this enduring change. What is the sequence of moves that you want to lead your team, your unit, your organization to absolutely achieve? So, some thoughts. Let me see what Marty. Hey, can we pull in Marty Hiawati? Is that it? Can we pull in Marty Hiawati? I'm killing your name, Marty. I killed somebody else's name earlier. I apologize for that deep down. Yeah, you're not the first that announced it like that, so don't worry about it. Okay, thanks Marty. The H is silent, it's Hiawati. Anyway, in our group and I believe this as well, you know, we know that business is going to change. We got to figure out what that pivot is, what that shift is going to be like going forward. But getting our people involved and getting our customers involved in some of these plans and what we're going to do going forward is going to be essential for us to be able to meet the needs of our people and our customers. So, I think that's going to be key. I know that our management group right now is talking about some of those things and in our region here in the Midwest and trying to figure out what we need to do to go forward and how we're going to be able to do business a little bit differently than what we've been doing in the past. Boy, that's cool. Marty, I appreciate it. I loved how you said get people involved. If I stood up right behind on my desk, I printed out right before we started today, 80 pages. We worked with an electrical distributor to go through those three phases I talked about and their team went through nine different steps in those three phases and they've got 80 pages printed out of thinking and in terms of what you just said, right? How are we going to pivot for the other side? I think it's absolutely critical, A, to go through that thinking and to do it together. So, guys, thank you. Appreciate that. Phil, are we good on your end there? We are good, Dirk, if that concludes the workshop. Yeah, I think so. Let me just, guys, let me just thank everybody. Guys, thank you so much for yesterday and today. Would you do me a favor? I'd love to know as I just kind of wrap things up in your, in the chat, one or two words to describe what you thought about the time we spent together yesterday and today. I'd absolutely love to see that and as you do that, let's just recap real quick. Guys, we are being called at this time to lead our organization during this unprecedented uncertainty. Calm resolve, be inspired to serve, right, and to move strategically even in this world of uncertainty and we did say that there were three pillars, right? Three pillars to lead during this uncertainty is let's, this is the time to really lean into our values, localize those guiding ideas, pick our eyes up towards the horizon, and ensure that we have those plans and strategic sequence move. We're innovating for the other side of this to come out stronger and we spent a lot of time talking about our people, right, and ensuring that now is the time, thank you for thinking it through with me, to move our thinking from human capital to human spirit and now is absolutely the time to do it and I've loved the two days with you all, thank you all. Matt, you said great stuff, general, productive, I appreciate it. Murray, very relevant, I'd love to hear that, Murray, thank you. Davidson's great stuff, I've loved this. Well, you guys have inspired me being here, great information, really, really good, awesome, motivating, thank you so much, you guys motivate me. Mike, great stuff for you as well. Guys, keep coming, thank you, super informative, insightful thoughts of practical ways, that's what I wanted to bring to you, Lisa, thank you so much, and super informative. So, Phil and the whole AEV team, thank you for allowing me to be a part of this first virtual meeting and I know that you guys are gonna go have some fun now in your networking group, so thanks for having me, everybody. Hey, and thank you, Dirk, and also thank you to all of our attendees this week, it's been great having you on virtually and looking forward to seeing what more value your association can bring to you in a virtual format. So, before we wrap, I do just want to put a plug in there, we look forward to seeing you all at the AED Summit and Conducts in 21, stay tuned for more information on dates and hotel information. We hope you can all stay on the line with us and join us for one of our three member receptions, we can just kind of unwind and we can talk about anything from the conference, or one of three themes for each of those rooms. So, stay in in this room if you'd like to participate in the employee engagement during COVID-19 topic, there's also links in the chat to our second Zoom networking reception about Wanderlust, and we'd just like to kind of discuss where you plan to travel to as soon as things open back up, whether that's the factory or Fiji, and you know, talk about maybe your favorite vacations and just kind of get to know your fellow conference attendees. The third room, the link is also in the chat, is on sales success or horror stories. So, that one big sale that you just love to tell the story about, or maybe you begrudgingly love to tell the story about, you can come and go from any of these rooms as you please, we'll run that until 4 p.m. and I look forward to seeing you in the one that I'm on, which is the sales one. So, thank you all for attending the AED Leadership Conference.

Dirk Beveridge

employees

human spirit

uncertainty

leadership

culture of engagement

growth

employee needs analysis

goals and aspirations

driving engagement

strategic mindset

new rules of business

supportive work environment

business landscape