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Transcript30 lines
- [00:01]
A
Welcome to the New Books Network. Hello, I'm Dan Hill.
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And I'm Julie Annixter. And this is Real Transformations, where we talk about change from the inside out.
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Because real transformations aren't just business strategies. They're human journeys, too, filled with hope that can either be leveraged or lost.
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B
Dan, I have followed you for a long time. I've seen the arc of your career. You have some really interesting gifts that you're bringing to this activity. What are you going. What are you going to do with real transformations?
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A
I want to make people connect with other people and unlock their potential. There's amazing talent within organizations and a lot of it gets suppressed. People give up. They think their voice isn't going to be heard. Their best idea is going to get shut down. But there is a lot of untapped potential. It makes me practically cry. With you look at things like the engagement scores, they're around, say, 31%, 21%. Whatever it is, it's abysmal. You would never run a factory at 20% capacity. It'd kill you to do that as an owner. And yet we allow it to happen at work. So we say that the workforce, the talent there is the most important thing and is in fact two thirds of the cost. Normally, the payroll, give it an opportunity to do all the things it can do. I really think it's there for people to realize. But right now, and most companies, based on what Gallup has found from their engagement survey results, it's not happening. I want us to help make it happen.
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B
And what is it that leaders don't get about emotion?
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A
They think it's a soft skill. They think it's an accessory. What they don't realize. If you go back to Latin, motivation and emotion have the same root word, movere. To move to make something happen. If you don't engage their heart and you don't give them hope, the opportunity for happiness, pride on the job, you are not meeting your opportunities and your obligations, quite frankly, as a leader. So communication skill, putting some skin in the game, getting out in front of people, face to face communication is incredibly powerful still. Yes, some things are online, but not everything's online. There is a spark that happens when your presence is felt externally, internally, in the heart. Those are the things I'm hoping can happen on the outer layers, the kind of the fringe layers that really are sustainable. Yeah, I can take pleasure in my latest glass of wine or soda drink or meal. To get to the core of what drives happiness, it's two things. Sense of belonging and A sense of meaningfulness. Put those two together, that is powerful. I think in most companies it's almost like you're ships passing the night. You're a bunch of strangers who are locked into a building for eight hours or ten hours a day. It's a terrible shame. You instead should feel like you are colleagues, that you are in this together. So you are fostering teamwork in the best sense of it. That's part of it. And then the work has to be something that you can see makes a difference, that you get to put yourself in it, you get to invest in it, you become an owner and it has an outcome. It should be. Maybe it's changing processes within the company. Maybe, maybe you're in a customer facing role and you can see us making a difference to them. I think that lifts everyone's spirits and obviously it's going to make the business a lot more successful.
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B
How is real transformations going to be different than the panoply of stuff that's out there?
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A
Well, I think the difference for us is that we want to be catalysts and we want to spark dialogue. It's not that we don't bring some interesting ideas, knowledge frameworks for discussion. I think we bring some value to the equation. But I think what we're really trying to do is not get in the way of what people internally can do for themselves. Once we serve as a catalyst and a spark for it, let them realize their potential. We're not here to do an endless parade of billable hours and make your project run forever. I know there's so many consultants, and I'm sorry to say it, but it's true. They talk to the executives, they know how they can feedback the executive's words to them to get buy in. And they sit then in a corner conference room and they devise a plan. They are in isolation. What I want us to be able to do is get out there, create these conversations, interdisciplinary conversations across departments, bringing the customer voices, get the executives on the floor, whether it's the factory floor, the retail floor, get the folks in R and D talking to the people in market research who are talking to the people in customer service. These silos are death traps for companies. And I believe that we can bring our spirit and our energy and help them realize the potential that's right there in front of their noses.
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B
And how is real transformations a capstone for your career?
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A
Well, it wasn't my career, but at age 6, because of my father's career at 3M, we moved to Italy. Lo and behold, I found myself in a situation where I did not know the language. I was going to a city of 100,000 on my own every day to go to Berlitz School. I had to read non verbals. Now Italians have a lot of nonverbals, so that helped me, but I had to figure out who I was dealing with. I think we have to recognize that in business, yes, you have B2B. You have business to consumer. You really have people to people. You work with colleagues to create products and service and other offerings that go to people, go to customers. You get a feedback loop. You get sense and respond. That's the real game. So picking up those signals, using emotional intelligence to say, what have I got here? What are the clues? Let's play Sherlock Holmes. Let's figure out how we're going to solve the mystery of unlocking a better value proposition than we have right now.
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B
Last question. What does inside out mean to you?
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It means it's absolutely not from the top down. I mean, the core suite has a lot to offer. But I can tell you a little story from many years ago. I'm at a major utility, $6 billion in annual revenue. I get the chairman to agree to change the employee annual meetings entirely. We're not going to have canned questions submitted in advance off the floor with a little candid Camera video beforehand. And one woman, who I called Whoopi Goldberg because she just had that energy, that verb to her said, jim, get out of your corner office. Get out there, see what's happening. See how we're feeling. What's going on in your own company? We got an 18% lift in the satisfaction levels with the annual employee meeting. That's what sparking a dialogue can do for people. So, Julie, in your heart of hearts, what does real transformations mean to you?
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It means having the courage to make what you want to happen happen, Period.
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And what does inside out, which is part of our tagline business change that works from the inside out. Why do we arrive at that tagline? What does inside out mean as opposed to top down?
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Because, Dan, we've seen it both ways. We've seen cultures that are top down, and we've seen cultures that are inside out. And we know which one works better because it's authentic.
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A
Okay? And you had a stellar career. I mean, you were head of R and D for Tom Peters Group. You've worked with all sorts of amazing companies. How does real transformations fit into your career? Arc? How is it maybe, perhaps, if I can dare say this, a bit of a capstone to all the amazing things you've done.
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You know, the army has a wonderful practice called an after action review, where they ask, what happened? What did we learn? What would we do differently next time? And in a nutshell, that's what I'm going to do. With all the amazing experiences I've had working with leaders at the Navy and Chanel and P and G, I'm going to summarize what I've learned and share it.
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And how would you say what we're doing? Our approach, if I can use that word, may be different from, say, many speakers, many consultants, many people who run workshops and so forth.
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We're not afraid of the human aspect of all of this. Okay? We know that human beings are emotional, have mindsets, have ideas, and all of that often gets suppressed inside of organizations or, let's say, not fully optimized. People are not encouraged to bring their full selves to work. And that's really where we're starting because we know that that makes for an authentic transformation or a change for good.
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A
Okay, And I just have to ask, who is Julie Anixer? If we talk about your values, your seminal experiences, maybe the aha moments in your life, what has brought you to what you're now trying to do?
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You know, I've been blessed. I have worked with incredibly talented, brilliant innovators throughout my career, and they've recognized something in me. I've recognized something in them. And I'll tell you who I am. I'm somebody who sees people's potential. I see their greatness instantly, and I help unleash it. And that is what gives me the greatest pleasure in life.
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A
Okay, so if we chose three words for you, if you chose three words for yourself, rather, what might they be?
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Courageous.
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Okay.
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Fun. Life changing.
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I would say catalyst. I would say that you're an incredibly warm person. I mean, the fact that you care about the people comes across immediately. That's not true for everyone. Quite awesome.
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Well, I am, you know, I'm somebody who's energized by people and energized by their talent. And there's so much opportunity in every walk of business for people to bring their full selves. I want to see more of that happen. And in real transformations, we're going to share those backstories, the places where it has and how that worked and what the real lessons and insights were, and we're going to have a lot of fun doing it.
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Sounds good to me,
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Sam.