WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.299 We are going to revisit our topic from last week, 00:00:04.440 --> 00:00:07.799 which was try versus buy. It's too good. We didn't 00:00:07.799 --> 00:00:11.160 go deep enough. We did make it to 20 minutes 00:00:11.160 --> 00:00:14.800 though. So that was impressive. But the thing 00:00:14.800 --> 00:00:16.359 that I want to talk about this week is really 00:00:16.359 --> 00:00:24.679 around try versus buy and how simple consultants 00:00:24.679 --> 00:00:29.940 have made it to buy. with showing very little 00:00:29.940 --> 00:00:39.100 impact unless you're selling opium by way of 00:00:39.100 --> 00:00:44.359 McKinsey, by way of doctors, by way of nefarious 00:00:44.359 --> 00:00:48.439 practices. Chris, I recently saw an article. 00:00:50.539 --> 00:00:52.679 God, I wish I would have flagged it. They were 00:00:52.679 --> 00:00:57.090 talking about the billions of dollars that Fortune 00:00:57.090 --> 00:01:00.850 500 companies spend on things like digital transformation 00:01:00.850 --> 00:01:08.870 or strategic reset. All of these things as a 00:01:08.870 --> 00:01:11.629 consulting industry, we're bringing in people 00:01:11.629 --> 00:01:14.890 with very low context that don't understand the 00:01:14.890 --> 00:01:17.909 complex mechanics and they're creating beautiful 00:01:17.909 --> 00:01:21.329 PowerPoints or they're introducing powerful dashboards 00:01:21.329 --> 00:01:25.400 of data. that are superficial, right? Because 00:01:25.400 --> 00:01:29.400 the audience is this executive. And executives 00:01:29.400 --> 00:01:33.780 are rewarded for growing. The rewards, show me 00:01:33.780 --> 00:01:35.500 what somebody's rewarded for, I'll tell you where 00:01:35.500 --> 00:01:38.519 their attention goes. Oh, 100%. Consulting does 00:01:38.519 --> 00:01:42.959 a really powerful job of feeding that need to 00:01:42.959 --> 00:01:46.260 have something to present up. So talk to me about 00:01:46.260 --> 00:01:49.159 how there's something more in your mind. It struck 00:01:49.159 --> 00:01:52.090 me that this is such a recent piece. because 00:01:52.090 --> 00:01:54.909 it's literally a multi -billion dollar industry 00:01:54.909 --> 00:01:57.590 just talking about what could happen or should 00:01:57.590 --> 00:02:02.349 happen and not making it happen. I think it's 00:02:02.349 --> 00:02:06.430 really interesting. It's probably why I will 00:02:06.430 --> 00:02:12.389 never be an executive because I want accuracy. 00:02:13.990 --> 00:02:17.860 Yeah. I want accuracy. I want results. I want 00:02:17.860 --> 00:02:20.280 people to, when they say that they predict something, 00:02:20.520 --> 00:02:24.199 I want their prediction to be validated. Like, 00:02:25.219 --> 00:02:29.240 what's your confidence level? And, you know, 00:02:29.259 --> 00:02:32.419 I saw a meme on Instagram about, you know, ask 00:02:32.419 --> 00:02:38.509 Chad GPT to create a Mackenzie slide deck. and 00:02:38.509 --> 00:02:41.449 then analyze the words that that McKinsey slide 00:02:41.449 --> 00:02:44.210 deck would get and you end up with synergies 00:02:44.210 --> 00:02:48.030 and optimizations and all these big words that 00:02:48.030 --> 00:02:53.069 sell really well. It's a really good story. And 00:02:53.069 --> 00:02:57.110 the side benefit is if McKinsey doesn't do well 00:02:57.110 --> 00:03:00.349 or Boston Consulting doesn't do well, it's not 00:03:00.349 --> 00:03:05.590 your problem. Right. It's like the best way to 00:03:05.590 --> 00:03:09.759 pass the buck. It is. You can vilify them and 00:03:09.759 --> 00:03:11.939 then you can hire them into a different functional 00:03:11.939 --> 00:03:14.620 area tomorrow. Yeah. And you have a different 00:03:14.620 --> 00:03:17.680 team from the same. Correct. Well educated organization. 00:03:18.319 --> 00:03:22.580 Correct. Yeah. No, it's, I think, you know, this, 00:03:22.759 --> 00:03:25.479 the idea of the culture of buy versus try, I 00:03:25.479 --> 00:03:28.539 think some of that has to do with how long are 00:03:28.539 --> 00:03:32.360 we invested within this organization? Oh yeah. 00:03:32.360 --> 00:03:36.319 And so if I was making a 40 year commitment to 00:03:36.319 --> 00:03:40.039 a company. Sure. then I wanna leave everything 00:03:40.039 --> 00:03:43.240 I touch at least a little bit better than I encountered 00:03:43.240 --> 00:03:47.159 it. Because I'm gonna reap the rewards multiple 00:03:47.159 --> 00:03:50.719 times, right? Investment rule of 72, if I do 00:03:50.719 --> 00:03:53.979 a 10 % improvement, then the value of that's 00:03:53.979 --> 00:03:57.560 gonna double in seven years. And so as I move 00:03:57.560 --> 00:03:59.979 through an organization, leaving things better 00:03:59.979 --> 00:04:03.120 than I found them pays both me and all of my 00:04:03.120 --> 00:04:04.620 collaborators that I'm working with for the next 00:04:04.620 --> 00:04:08.039 30 years, it pays us dividends. But if my career 00:04:08.039 --> 00:04:10.759 is two years, or if I'm measuring in quarterly 00:04:10.759 --> 00:04:15.939 increments, those try investments that take time, 00:04:16.139 --> 00:04:18.860 a series of experiments, a series of refinements, 00:04:18.860 --> 00:04:21.180 those don't happen in 90 days. Well, the other 00:04:21.180 --> 00:04:25.319 interesting thing is like, I'm going to think 00:04:25.319 --> 00:04:27.339 about like new employees, right? So you hire 00:04:27.339 --> 00:04:29.740 a new employee, right? They're impressive. You've 00:04:29.740 --> 00:04:33.079 never heard their stories before. You don't know 00:04:33.079 --> 00:04:35.689 their strengths or weaknesses. You know, and 00:04:35.689 --> 00:04:39.129 generally you get someone who's at, you know, 00:04:39.129 --> 00:04:41.230 who's a competent professional, they will be 00:04:41.230 --> 00:04:45.509 very competent and kind and have some EQ, but 00:04:45.509 --> 00:04:49.529 it takes a while to understand the strengths, 00:04:49.649 --> 00:04:51.629 weaknesses, the good, the bad, and the ugly, 00:04:51.870 --> 00:04:54.149 because we're all humans trying to do our best, 00:04:54.290 --> 00:04:59.629 right? Yeah. And so the best triers are going 00:04:59.629 --> 00:05:04.139 to be the people that know where to try. And 00:05:04.139 --> 00:05:06.680 maybe it's as simple as if you're an executive, 00:05:06.819 --> 00:05:09.500 you don't even know where to start. Yeah. So 00:05:09.500 --> 00:05:14.060 it's easy to start with synergies. Transformation. 00:05:14.300 --> 00:05:17.899 Transformation. Impact. More hay -owl. We need 00:05:17.899 --> 00:05:23.220 more calabino. Leverage. Scale. It's interesting 00:05:23.220 --> 00:05:25.639 because what you described, and I think today's 00:05:25.639 --> 00:05:30.990 hiring process, is pretty abrupt. And if I think 00:05:30.990 --> 00:05:34.250 about hiring a new resource, we have some screening, 00:05:34.990 --> 00:05:39.850 maybe I have some technical acumen, periods of 00:05:39.850 --> 00:05:44.189 interviews, maybe plural. I have some EQ, cultural 00:05:44.189 --> 00:05:47.389 fit within that team, not necessarily within 00:05:47.389 --> 00:05:50.329 the company's DNA, but usually just at a team 00:05:50.329 --> 00:05:54.269 level. But in general, I would dare say most 00:05:54.269 --> 00:05:58.120 hires happen within... you know, four to six 00:05:58.120 --> 00:06:01.300 weeks unless there's HR reasons that it's slowed 00:06:01.300 --> 00:06:04.879 down. So you've essentially spent maybe, I mean, 00:06:04.920 --> 00:06:07.360 at least personally, a lot of my interviews, 00:06:07.899 --> 00:06:09.959 both as an employee, but also as a consultant, 00:06:10.360 --> 00:06:12.779 it may only be an hour or two of interview and 00:06:12.779 --> 00:06:15.899 I made an offer or I'm asked for a proposal. 00:06:16.199 --> 00:06:18.060 Yeah. And the funny thing is like that offer 00:06:18.060 --> 00:06:21.000 could be early in your career. It could be 50 00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:24.560 grand later in your career. It could be 150 grand, 00:06:24.720 --> 00:06:30.269 could be 300 grand. And basically all I'm being 00:06:30.269 --> 00:06:33.329 offered, I'm not being offered a career. I'm 00:06:33.329 --> 00:06:36.550 being offered paycheck. I was talking with a 00:06:36.550 --> 00:06:41.269 friend today over lunch and she is a really brilliant 00:06:41.269 --> 00:06:44.329 chief HR leader. And I was saying to her, earlier 00:06:44.329 --> 00:06:46.810 in my career, I almost, I was interviewing and 00:06:46.810 --> 00:06:50.189 I was offered a job as an actuary. I am not the 00:06:50.189 --> 00:06:53.129 kind of introvert or statistic table Nazi that 00:06:53.129 --> 00:06:54.889 would have been an awesome actuary. I would have 00:06:54.889 --> 00:06:58.610 been a distraction. to everybody I worked with 00:06:58.610 --> 00:07:01.149 and an annoyance to leadership. I would have 00:07:01.149 --> 00:07:03.230 certainly been fired within the first year for 00:07:03.230 --> 00:07:06.589 not getting what they needed. But what's interesting 00:07:06.589 --> 00:07:09.230 was when they were asking me about what I wanted, 00:07:09.990 --> 00:07:12.750 what I didn't say but was 100 % true is I want 00:07:12.750 --> 00:07:17.829 a paycheck. I have bills to pay and you're furthest 00:07:17.829 --> 00:07:21.149 along the process and I have an urgent need to 00:07:21.149 --> 00:07:24.639 cover my costs. But as we get later in our career, 00:07:24.899 --> 00:07:26.860 hopefully, we kind of discover who we are and 00:07:26.860 --> 00:07:28.579 what we're about. And so I was saying to her, 00:07:28.660 --> 00:07:33.939 today, I have a paycheck. I have a lot of learning 00:07:33.939 --> 00:07:36.139 as well. So I'm not looking for a paycheck. What 00:07:36.139 --> 00:07:39.560 I'm looking for is a purpose. And I'm looking 00:07:39.560 --> 00:07:42.759 for a sense of fit. And I'm looking for value 00:07:42.759 --> 00:07:44.759 alignment. Is this an opportunity for me to show 00:07:44.759 --> 00:07:46.980 up and do something I'm really passionate about? 00:07:47.639 --> 00:07:51.100 Or is it just a paycheck? I think in the spirit 00:07:51.100 --> 00:07:53.800 of the buy versus try, so many organizations 00:07:53.800 --> 00:07:57.019 today, it's a consumerism transaction when we're 00:07:57.019 --> 00:08:00.879 hiring. We're not asking, is this the kind of 00:08:00.879 --> 00:08:03.500 person that reflects our DNA? Do we have our 00:08:03.500 --> 00:08:06.379 values aligned? Could they potentially become 00:08:06.379 --> 00:08:08.360 part of our leadership and contribute to our 00:08:08.360 --> 00:08:11.459 overall health over the course of 10 to 15 years? 00:08:13.079 --> 00:08:15.500 I don't think we're thinking in that longer line, 00:08:15.519 --> 00:08:18.199 and it takes a long time to become a good trier. 00:08:18.879 --> 00:08:21.480 and develop that deep knowledge of how an organization 00:08:21.480 --> 00:08:23.360 actually functions. Well, you've talked about 00:08:23.360 --> 00:08:26.100 your time at Nike in kind of their heyday, in 00:08:26.100 --> 00:08:28.519 which they basically, it was part of their culture, 00:08:28.939 --> 00:08:31.060 that they kicked people to other parts of the 00:08:31.060 --> 00:08:35.200 org. Like it was 18, it was 18 months stints, 00:08:35.240 --> 00:08:37.200 if I remember correctly, and they would basically 00:08:37.200 --> 00:08:39.879 go and they would learn this other thing. Like 00:08:39.879 --> 00:08:42.639 imagine like the wealth of knowledge that you 00:08:42.639 --> 00:08:46.539 get by bringing other stuff, other things, like, 00:08:46.639 --> 00:08:48.919 and I've thought about this a lot, like, Would 00:08:48.919 --> 00:08:51.759 love to be a consultant if you could start me 00:08:51.759 --> 00:08:54.740 as a new as basically a new hire and Train me 00:08:54.740 --> 00:08:57.580 how to do something because I guarantee you four 00:08:57.580 --> 00:09:00.539 weeks in I've got 25 different problems solved. 00:09:00.580 --> 00:09:04.519 I guarantee it Because you have fresh eyes and 00:09:04.519 --> 00:09:08.860 experience Correct. Yeah, I like give me give 00:09:08.860 --> 00:09:13.879 me four weeks in any job I will I will basically 00:09:13.879 --> 00:09:16.700 have all sorts of things for you to solve right 00:09:16.700 --> 00:09:21.210 and you know That's a try. Yeah. Right. That's 00:09:21.210 --> 00:09:23.129 that's putting your boots on, putting your gloves 00:09:23.129 --> 00:09:26.309 on and going to work. Right. Whereas it feels 00:09:26.309 --> 00:09:31.450 like. You know, maybe maybe I'm missing something 00:09:31.450 --> 00:09:33.970 here, but most consulting just feels like it's 00:09:33.970 --> 00:09:38.669 a flyby of what could be and, you know, of the 00:09:38.669 --> 00:09:40.889 flavor of the month. And so a couple of years 00:09:40.889 --> 00:09:43.029 ago, it was blockchain. You know, blockchain 00:09:43.029 --> 00:09:45.690 had zero value. So we created crypto. It's been 00:09:45.690 --> 00:09:49.080 great. You know, now it's gen AI, right? What 00:09:49.080 --> 00:09:52.679 is gen AI? Define it. Good luck getting a good 00:09:52.679 --> 00:09:56.720 answer from many people. They will, or getting 00:09:56.720 --> 00:10:00.240 one flavor of an answer and that like, look, 00:10:00.379 --> 00:10:05.840 AI is nuanced. Like an LLM will, it predicts 00:10:05.840 --> 00:10:09.039 the next word. And so if you can, if you understand 00:10:09.039 --> 00:10:11.960 that you're going to be better off versus just 00:10:11.960 --> 00:10:14.259 thinking it's magical. You're like, no, it's 00:10:14.259 --> 00:10:18.429 just. It's a writing machine. It's pretty, like 00:10:18.429 --> 00:10:22.269 I'm not complaining. No. Well, I think what's 00:10:22.269 --> 00:10:26.950 interesting is that if we think about the script 00:10:26.950 --> 00:10:31.750 of how a business operates, you know, or like 00:10:31.750 --> 00:10:35.309 notes on a page of sheet music, it's not just 00:10:35.309 --> 00:10:37.769 the notes that matter. It's the white space in 00:10:37.769 --> 00:10:42.100 between. You know, your comment, I love that, 00:10:42.100 --> 00:10:43.980 that Nike story stuck with you. What I was so 00:10:43.980 --> 00:10:46.919 impressed with was when they took people that 00:10:46.919 --> 00:10:50.500 were, had a pretty good social EQ and were inherently 00:10:50.500 --> 00:10:54.179 curious and were collaborative and they started 00:10:54.179 --> 00:10:56.620 to move them around, they started drawing connection 00:10:56.620 --> 00:10:59.659 across all the white space between these teams, 00:11:00.220 --> 00:11:02.879 between geographies and they call them product 00:11:02.879 --> 00:11:05.000 engines. But for any business, we have all these 00:11:05.000 --> 00:11:07.529 different service lines. somebody can spend an 00:11:07.529 --> 00:11:09.750 entire career in just one piece of the business. 00:11:10.110 --> 00:11:12.529 And it means that the depth of their relationships 00:11:12.529 --> 00:11:14.789 is shallow and they don't have context outside 00:11:14.789 --> 00:11:18.809 of their area. And so from a cultural health, 00:11:19.269 --> 00:11:22.129 I found that to be extraordinarily powerful because 00:11:22.129 --> 00:11:24.289 all of a sudden it's not just empathy you have 00:11:24.289 --> 00:11:26.570 because you're familiar with what your counterparts 00:11:26.570 --> 00:11:30.190 are doing, but you also know who to call to ask 00:11:30.190 --> 00:11:34.529 for that tri -level of insight. So that's super 00:11:34.529 --> 00:11:36.600 powerful. Last week you touched on something 00:11:36.600 --> 00:11:38.059 and I want to go back to it because I don't remember 00:11:38.059 --> 00:11:41.100 the specifics, but there were a handful of things 00:11:41.100 --> 00:11:44.299 that if I wanted to hire or cultivate triers 00:11:44.299 --> 00:11:48.500 in my business, what are some of those characteristics 00:11:48.500 --> 00:11:51.539 of how I might identify somebody that's prepared 00:11:51.539 --> 00:11:54.659 to try, that's going to take the time to really 00:11:54.659 --> 00:11:57.740 unpack and invest in building something that's 00:11:57.740 --> 00:12:00.580 more long -standing versus just throwing up some 00:12:00.580 --> 00:12:02.960 quarterly results because they expect to be shopping 00:12:02.960 --> 00:12:05.820 for a new job in two to three years. I mean, 00:12:05.840 --> 00:12:11.000 I would consider myself a trier. And if I go 00:12:11.000 --> 00:12:15.000 back to my career, my biggest successes have 00:12:15.000 --> 00:12:18.659 always been just being curious and just being 00:12:18.659 --> 00:12:22.639 like, well, why does it work that way? And specifically 00:12:22.639 --> 00:12:26.120 in handoffs, I've been ridiculously lucky in 00:12:26.120 --> 00:12:29.409 just figuring out why does department a do this 00:12:29.409 --> 00:12:31.750 thing and department b do something else or system 00:12:31.750 --> 00:12:34.330 a do something and system b do something and 00:12:34.330 --> 00:12:35.889 you're like there seems to be something amiss 00:12:35.889 --> 00:12:41.929 here or or i just i just expect more um i i you 00:12:41.929 --> 00:12:45.289 know um when i i used to work at bodybuilding 00:12:45.289 --> 00:12:48.549 .com yeah you know these are audio so you guys 00:12:48.549 --> 00:12:51.250 won't know this but i am totally jacked just 00:12:51.250 --> 00:12:53.740 kidding not jacked Oh no, I was in operations. 00:12:53.799 --> 00:12:56.059 That was the only non jacked department at buddy 00:12:56.059 --> 00:12:59.559 building. Anyway, um, you've got your marketing 00:12:59.559 --> 00:13:01.340 guy. You didn't get the supplements that everybody 00:13:01.340 --> 00:13:03.620 else got the marketing guys. You're like, oh, 00:13:03.720 --> 00:13:06.860 they're pretty over there and all the operations 00:13:06.860 --> 00:13:09.539 are like, we've, we've had too many beers or 00:13:09.539 --> 00:13:13.620 something. I don't know. Anyway, uh, but when 00:13:13.620 --> 00:13:15.840 I was there, we, we, we were shipping stuff from 00:13:15.840 --> 00:13:18.860 different warehouses and we had, we would ship 00:13:18.860 --> 00:13:23.029 stuff from the wrong warehouse a lot. And then 00:13:23.029 --> 00:13:24.809 when we went and looked to what was shipping, 00:13:25.009 --> 00:13:27.049 it was always like our most popular product. 00:13:27.429 --> 00:13:31.830 It was optimum chocolate whey. And it was just 00:13:31.830 --> 00:13:33.750 baffling people. They just could not figure it 00:13:33.750 --> 00:13:35.690 out. And I'm like, well, why does it ship from 00:13:35.690 --> 00:13:37.710 the wrong warehouse? It's like, well, we were 00:13:37.710 --> 00:13:40.730 missing that product, whatever the product was, 00:13:41.870 --> 00:13:43.570 in the warehouse that it was supposed to ship 00:13:43.570 --> 00:13:46.379 from. Right. So it might be ordered in LA. Correct. 00:13:46.539 --> 00:13:48.879 And it's being sourced or shipped out of New 00:13:48.879 --> 00:13:51.340 York. Exactly. Exactly. Like specifically, you 00:13:51.340 --> 00:13:53.980 order it in Oregon. It comes from Pennsylvania 00:13:53.980 --> 00:13:56.940 because it didn't have some sort of ketone, something 00:13:56.940 --> 00:13:59.720 or other. And so I'm over here in the corner 00:13:59.720 --> 00:14:01.320 raising my hand and saying, hey, you know what 00:14:01.320 --> 00:14:02.919 would be awesome? I'll tell you what would be 00:14:02.919 --> 00:14:06.700 awesome. Just tell me the item that you expected 00:14:06.700 --> 00:14:11.120 to be in, you know, the West Coast, DC. Yeah. 00:14:11.299 --> 00:14:14.769 But was not, but was in Pennsylvania. And I created 00:14:14.769 --> 00:14:16.629 this report and everyone was like, oh my gosh, 00:14:16.629 --> 00:14:20.690 this is so great. And you're like, that was a 00:14:20.690 --> 00:14:23.710 try, but it was caused by me being curious and 00:14:23.710 --> 00:14:25.309 saying just because it doesn't exist doesn't 00:14:25.309 --> 00:14:29.529 mean I can't ask for it. And it took me a while 00:14:29.529 --> 00:14:31.870 to explain what I was trying to do, but once 00:14:31.870 --> 00:14:36.850 they got it, it just became so obvious. That's 00:14:36.850 --> 00:14:39.529 the funny thing about tries is when the try works 00:14:39.529 --> 00:14:41.850 and not all of them are going to work, but when 00:14:41.850 --> 00:14:47.019 the try works, It's so obvious what we've been 00:14:47.019 --> 00:14:51.200 done. Yeah. Well, it's like a baseball player 00:14:51.200 --> 00:14:54.879 with a, with a 400 average. Like how much is 00:14:54.879 --> 00:14:57.440 that guy worth? Oh yeah. Out of control. Right? 00:14:57.799 --> 00:15:00.840 No. And, and that's only four out of 10. Yeah. 00:15:02.399 --> 00:15:04.960 And yet we don't, we don't have baseball cards 00:15:04.960 --> 00:15:09.259 for our staff. Yeah. We don't know what calendar 00:15:09.259 --> 00:15:12.169 to track. They're meaningful. Think the other 00:15:12.169 --> 00:15:14.490 I think the other thing is triers have to be 00:15:14.490 --> 00:15:17.649 system thinkers Me or they will just make their 00:15:17.649 --> 00:15:20.029 little silo efficient and not care about the 00:15:20.029 --> 00:15:25.690 system Yeah, and you know, I also think being 00:15:25.690 --> 00:15:31.289 able to Go into different groups like again, 00:15:31.350 --> 00:15:33.950 I don't know why companies don't collect these 00:15:33.950 --> 00:15:36.210 little like these little internal consulting 00:15:36.210 --> 00:15:39.610 teams Because my guess like my guess is is there's 00:15:39.610 --> 00:15:42.230 a there's a portion of your company However, 00:15:42.470 --> 00:15:44.929 how whatever size your company is like let's 00:15:44.929 --> 00:15:49.289 just say it's 2 % Okay, so you got 2 % of your 00:15:49.289 --> 00:15:51.629 company that did for some rat for some random 00:15:51.629 --> 00:15:55.129 reason their superpower is Trying and figuring 00:15:55.129 --> 00:15:57.730 out little nuanced things that like gets them 00:15:57.730 --> 00:16:01.330 all sorts of credit and and But no one else saw 00:16:01.330 --> 00:16:04.309 Like if you had a little team, you've got a 200 00:16:04.309 --> 00:16:06.250 200 percent company. You got a little team of 00:16:06.250 --> 00:16:08.440 four that basically just goes and sits stuff, 00:16:08.600 --> 00:16:11.919 learns stuff, and then just goes and makes recommendations 00:16:11.919 --> 00:16:14.960 and has some pull within the org, it would be 00:16:14.960 --> 00:16:17.460 pretty incredible what could happen. Because 00:16:17.460 --> 00:16:19.259 the thing is, is like these changes aren't big 00:16:19.259 --> 00:16:22.480 oftentimes, they're really small. That's the 00:16:22.480 --> 00:16:24.000 thing that's blown, like that's the thing that 00:16:24.000 --> 00:16:26.940 blows my mind. Is sometimes these tries are like, 00:16:27.100 --> 00:16:29.799 you know, I think there's a story of this company 00:16:29.799 --> 00:16:31.320 they call in the console. I don't even know if 00:16:31.320 --> 00:16:34.210 this is a true story, but it's. It's a good analogy. 00:16:35.350 --> 00:16:37.509 They spent millions of dollars because for some 00:16:37.509 --> 00:16:40.129 reason these boxes were coming through and they 00:16:40.129 --> 00:16:42.870 weren't being filled. There were boxes coming 00:16:42.870 --> 00:16:45.289 through and they would box them up and ship them 00:16:45.289 --> 00:16:47.990 out, but they had no product in them. So they 00:16:47.990 --> 00:16:50.169 spent millions of dollars fixing the line. The 00:16:50.169 --> 00:16:51.950 line was better and it did a lot better job. 00:16:52.009 --> 00:16:55.450 And then one day they just found out that these 00:16:55.450 --> 00:16:59.129 boxes were just not like ever making it to the 00:16:59.129 --> 00:17:03.100 million dollar checkpoint. What some you know 00:17:03.100 --> 00:17:06.259 the story goes and again this could be fake but 00:17:06.259 --> 00:17:09.259 the story goes Someone who was working just went 00:17:09.259 --> 00:17:11.359 and got a fan because he was tired of the million 00:17:11.359 --> 00:17:12.960 -dollar machine because it made all this noise 00:17:12.960 --> 00:17:15.980 It was a pain. He just put the box fan up It 00:17:15.980 --> 00:17:18.240 blew the boxes and if the box didn't have product 00:17:18.240 --> 00:17:20.740 just blew the box off the line problem solved 00:17:20.740 --> 00:17:24.299 right so like But but but I think you love I 00:17:24.299 --> 00:17:27.859 love that story though Rubble solved. Yeah, so 00:17:27.859 --> 00:17:32.150 you got some guy with it with a $19 box fan that's 00:17:32.150 --> 00:17:34.910 on discount at Walmart is just solving the problem. 00:17:36.109 --> 00:17:40.309 It's a lot like the story of the U .S. spending 00:17:40.309 --> 00:17:42.869 literally millions of dollars creating a pen 00:17:42.869 --> 00:17:45.049 that would write upside down in space and the 00:17:45.049 --> 00:17:49.230 Soviets just use a pencil. I think often that 00:17:49.230 --> 00:17:52.569 desire to over -engineer because we're not close 00:17:52.569 --> 00:17:55.049 enough to it or we don't take a step back. And 00:17:55.049 --> 00:17:58.859 I think a lot of triers will adjust their perspective. 00:17:59.119 --> 00:18:01.599 To your point about curiosity, I'll ask somebody 00:18:01.599 --> 00:18:04.079 that may not be working in the process, but they're 00:18:04.079 --> 00:18:06.980 dependent on it or they're an input. And gathering 00:18:06.980 --> 00:18:10.579 those perspectives gives you a much more complete 00:18:10.579 --> 00:18:14.039 view of what's going on. I think the triers also 00:18:14.039 --> 00:18:17.619 have tried more. I know that sounds so dumb, 00:18:18.160 --> 00:18:21.059 but they've just tried more. And so they've failed 00:18:21.059 --> 00:18:25.279 more. So they have a better predictability of 00:18:25.279 --> 00:18:30.220 what will work. Yeah, Chris, I'll tell you You 00:18:30.220 --> 00:18:32.140 know, I've spent the last 20 years predominantly 00:18:32.140 --> 00:18:34.940 as a consultant. Oh, we're gonna go any of the 00:18:34.940 --> 00:18:38.000 stations Yeah, it's an admission, but I'll tell 00:18:38.000 --> 00:18:41.720 you the if there's a singular secret to my success 00:18:41.720 --> 00:18:45.720 It's discovering who those connected triers are 00:18:45.720 --> 00:18:51.019 Because the challenge is that oftentimes a trier 00:18:51.019 --> 00:18:54.000 is asking questions that executives can't answer. 00:18:54.039 --> 00:18:56.539 Yep or they're pointing at things that are good 00:18:56.539 --> 00:19:00.019 enough, they might be fragile, but it's not a 00:19:00.019 --> 00:19:02.759 priority. And as a consultant, you're usually 00:19:02.759 --> 00:19:04.920 brought in by somebody with authority and budget. 00:19:05.460 --> 00:19:09.000 It's a director or an executive, right? And what 00:19:09.000 --> 00:19:12.079 they're asking is, I happen to perceive a problem 00:19:12.079 --> 00:19:14.900 and you, consultant, I'm not a McKinsey guy, 00:19:15.059 --> 00:19:18.640 right? They're not asking me for an army of analysis. 00:19:18.720 --> 00:19:21.400 What they're asking for is bring me some recommendations 00:19:21.400 --> 00:19:24.410 and help me understand how we execute it. And 00:19:24.410 --> 00:19:26.910 so my very simple motion, and to your point, 00:19:27.069 --> 00:19:29.950 every organization should have 2 % of their workforce 00:19:29.950 --> 00:19:33.069 doing this. It's working on the business, not 00:19:33.069 --> 00:19:37.069 in the business. 2%, right? And all you have 00:19:37.069 --> 00:19:39.390 to do is, you don't have to have deep knowledge 00:19:39.390 --> 00:19:41.569 of every process. You just have to understand 00:19:41.569 --> 00:19:44.190 through interview, talk to me about your process. 00:19:44.869 --> 00:19:48.490 The priors talk about it differently. They also 00:19:48.490 --> 00:19:52.569 don't expect, they don't accept the status quo. 00:19:53.259 --> 00:19:56.380 No. There's always one more thing, isn't there? 00:19:56.420 --> 00:20:00.279 Well, there's always like, can we go and get 00:20:00.279 --> 00:20:05.240 this data piece? Or do we have to do that? And 00:20:05.240 --> 00:20:09.259 so they're always kind of experimenting on what 00:20:09.259 --> 00:20:15.089 will versus what won't work. Yeah. Tinker as 00:20:15.089 --> 00:20:17.990 a descriptor of what you just said, right? And 00:20:17.990 --> 00:20:20.529 maybe it's optimizing. They want to play with 00:20:20.529 --> 00:20:24.269 things a little bit. I think the triers are also 00:20:24.269 --> 00:20:28.170 when you hear Elon talk about Doge, and he's 00:20:28.170 --> 00:20:29.910 like, I'm going to go save all these monies. 00:20:30.089 --> 00:20:33.109 The triers are like, dude, you can save your 00:20:33.109 --> 00:20:36.869 money in Medicare or the military. Those are 00:20:36.869 --> 00:20:40.410 your two options. They just stop there. They're 00:20:40.410 --> 00:20:44.049 like, look, I understand math, statistics. The 00:20:44.049 --> 00:20:46.410 piles of money are hanging out in the buckets 00:20:46.410 --> 00:20:48.529 that you aren't playing with. You're playing 00:20:48.529 --> 00:20:51.210 in the wrong sand, at the wrong beach, my friend. 00:20:51.890 --> 00:20:54.869 That's right. Well, it's kind of like in modern 00:20:54.869 --> 00:20:57.630 day organizations, we spend an exorbitant amount 00:20:57.630 --> 00:21:02.509 on salaries and on software. If we look at the 00:21:02.509 --> 00:21:05.569 actual dollar spent on people, process, and technology, 00:21:05.990 --> 00:21:08.450 process is not where money is spent unless there's 00:21:08.450 --> 00:21:10.730 software strapped to it or heavy pieces of equipment 00:21:10.730 --> 00:21:13.410 that are really - Oh, sure, sure, sure. So the 00:21:13.410 --> 00:21:16.170 white streets falls apart for sure and you know 00:21:16.170 --> 00:21:17.890 What's interesting like what I've what I've thought 00:21:17.890 --> 00:21:20.029 about a lot is like you can take process and 00:21:20.029 --> 00:21:22.470 you can tie it to the strategy, right? Yeah, 00:21:22.470 --> 00:21:25.509 like if the process can align with the strategy 00:21:25.509 --> 00:21:29.390 versus Like I think a lot of oftentimes business 00:21:29.390 --> 00:21:36.009 is about connecting To the community right and 00:21:36.009 --> 00:21:38.130 so there ends up being more politics than normal, 00:21:38.150 --> 00:21:41.930 but we are we are over again my friend it is 00:21:42.960 --> 00:21:46.180 Try versus lie. We had more to say on this. We 00:21:46.180 --> 00:21:49.599 did. Awesome session. All right, man. Well, I 00:21:49.599 --> 00:21:52.660 guess we just keep trying. We'll just keep trying. 00:21:52.680 --> 00:21:55.039 There you go. We're only trying to bat a 400, 00:21:55.079 --> 00:21:58.319 brother. There you go. All right, man. All right, 00:21:58.480 --> 00:21:59.000 have a good one, bet.