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Rethink Culture is the podcast that shines the spotlight on the leaders who are rethinking workplace culture. Virtually all of the business leaders who make headlines today do so because of their company performance. Yet, the people and the culture of a company is at least as important as its performance. It's time that we shine the spotlight on the leaders who are rethinking workplace culture and are putting people and culture at the forefront.
00:00:07:12 - 00:00:32:08
Andreas
Good morning, good afternoon and good evening. Welcome to another episode of Rethink Culture, the podcast that shines a spotlight on leaders of businesses that people love to work for. My name is Andreas Konstantinou. I'm a micro-manager turned servant leader who developed a passion for workplace culture. Our latest project is a Culture of Health Check, which is an online service that lets you measure your culture so you can manage it.
00:00:32:10 - 00:01:02:09
Andreas
Today, I have the rare pleasure of welcoming Bob Chapman and Bob is many things. So firstly, he is CEO and Chairman of Barry-Wehmiller, which is a 3 billion global manufacturing or capital equipment and engineering solutions company with more than 12,000 team members around the world. He joined the company many, many years ago, in 1975, when the business had 20 million in revenue and was struggling.
00:01:02:11 - 00:01:31:11
Andreas
And despite the many obstacles, he applied a unique blend of strategy and culture that's brought it today into where it is and through more than 130 acquisitions. The way he measures success, which is something that really stands out, is, by the way the business is able to touch the lives of people and that is everyone, not just customers, but also employees.
00:01:31:13 - 00:02:11:12
Andreas
He's also founded the Chapman & Co. Leadership Institute that brings leadership training and cultural transformation to organizations. He is focused on teaching caring leadership to tomorrow's leaders through programs in primary education and universities. He's the author of Everybody Matters that sold more than 110,000 copies around the world and continues to grow. And, I did ask him about fun facts, and he said, he's a man of average intelligence, but he's blessed with a common sense, creativity and a positive attitude which have allowed him to see things that other people cannot see.
00:02:11:13 - 00:02:44:18
Andreas
And when you watch or listen to this podcast, he will just have published a book in which he's a coauthor, The Journey of Leadership. It's a book published by McKinsey, and talks about servant leadership and creating happier workplaces. So very welcome to the Rethink Culture podcast, Bob, and also excited to have you here. This happens to be the first episode of our brand new season three for the podcast. So I want to start it with a bang. So welcome to the podcast.
00:02:44:20 - 00:02:54:06
Bob
I appreciate the opportunity to share this message of caring, and I'm sure I hope your listeners, leave this with a new way of looking at their role as a leader.
00:02:54:06 - 00:03:28:01
Andreas
So, Bob, I was just reading your, your book, Everybody matters, which is, I only got through a third of it, but I got through quite a few interesting bits. And I want to quiz you about some of the parts in the book. So one of the things you start, or you say very clearly, is business could be the most powerful force for good in the world. So why do you say that? And is it the case or could it be the case? Why or why not?
00:03:28:03 - 00:04:03:18
Bob
Well, as you'll find in the book, my story is a story impacted by three, I call them revelations, thoughts that occurred to me that I have no idea where they came from. I believe they came from some higher power way above my intellectual ability. But the one you mentioned was the second revelation in my journey. And Cynthia and I are Episcopalians. We were at church, my mentor was the rector of our church, Ed Salmon and Ed, the spectacular rector of our church. It meant a lot to us.
00:04:03:20 - 00:04:30:15
Bob
And one day after the sermon, I looked at Cynthia, my wife, and I said, Cynthia, Ed has only got us for one hour a week. At Barry-Wehmiller, we have people in our care for 40 hours a week. We are 40 times more powerful to impact people's lives than our faith is.
00:04:30:17 - 00:04:51:20
Bob
And as I walked out of the church that day, inspired by that revelation, I said to myself, business could be the most powerful force for good in the world if we had leaders who had the skills and courage to care for the people they have the privilege of leading.
00:04:51:22 - 00:05:40:21
Bob
That was a major revelation for me because I had never been taught, I'd never read, I'd never learned that the way I would lead Barry-Wehmiller would impact people's personal lives and health and remember that it was affirmed when we learned that the person you report to at work is more important to your health than your family doctor. These are things I was not aware of in my education, in the early part of my career. I thought it was about creating shareholder value and organic growth, and, and value. And so that was that revelation was dramatic to me.
00:05:40:23 - 00:06:03:01
Andreas
In the book, you say, one of the quotes I really liked is when you were acquiring PCMC and someone asked you and said, I want to hear if you care about the union. And you said, I don't give a damn about your union, but I care about you. So yeah. Tell us a little more about that story.
00:06:03:03 - 00:06:42:06
Bob
Well, let me add to that story, because I think it goes back to a fundamental that we're talking about here. A major university had two professors of organizational development come in to interview me, some years ago. And they interviewed me for an hour and a half. At the end of the interview, these professors looked at me and said, you're the first CEO we have ever talked to that never talked about your product. And I leaned back and I said, I've been talking about our product for the last hour and a half.
00:06:42:07 - 00:07:05:18
Bob
It's our people. I will not go to my grave proud of the machinery we built for our customers. I will go to my grave proud of the people who built that machinery. That got them completely off guard. I said, people are our purpose, not our product. Our product are the result of gifted people who come together and create value.
00:07:05:21 - 00:07:31:07
Bob
So as an organization, we can grow and give people a sense of a future. So that foundation, that view of shifting from seeing our companies as product producers to see us as allowing people to come together and organizations share their gifts around multiple products and to work as part of a team and to go home at night feeling valued.
00:07:31:13 - 00:07:58:12
Bob
So that revelation. So when I was acquiring PCMC, which had a strong historic union, and I was having a listening session with a mixture of team members from the plant and from the office, etc. and when this gentleman I hadn't thought, I didn't think, as you can tell from the answer, I didn't think and then answer. What came out of me was my passion. Our purpose is our people.
00:07:58:14 - 00:08:30:05
Bob
I don't care about their union, I care about you. And that resonated deeply with the people because they had never heard somebody who genuinely cared about them. And that company, to this day, you know, by 18 years since we adopted that company, that company was struggling near financial insolvency and it has been vibrant. Never had a layoff in over a decade that we've own that company and it and now that has a great future.
00:08:30:07 - 00:09:02:13
Bob
So that is my responsibility. The people, the people are our purpose. We describe it as people, purpose, and performance. The first word intentionally is people. People are our purpose. Okay? And then we need an inspiring purpose that inspires us to share our gifts fully. And then we need to create value, human value and economic value. If we are not creating values in organization, we put our people at risk.
00:09:02:15 - 00:09:33:11
Bob
We have to have the confidence of our investors to give our people a good future. So we have to create value, but not just economic value, but human value and economic value in harmony. So that's really where that came from, this feeling that people are our purpose. Okay? We need a product to create value for our stakeholders, our team members. But our focus is on our people.
00:09:33:12 - 00:10:12:21
Andreas
Do you ever find that people or caring about people antagonizes or is in conflict with performance? So you mentioned at one point in the book, I mean, before you became conscious about culture, I think that is, that you had to do a lot of cost cutting in early in the W. In your life today, in your work today, do you ever see that the two are complementary or are they occasionally in conflict with one another?
00:10:12:23 - 00:10:32:07
Bob
Well, life is full of conflicts, okay? You know, every day. And I would say to you that about 15 years ago, we created a vision for our company purpose. Because I was very concerned that business was all about economic value.
00:10:32:07 - 00:11:01:15
Bob
And we created a guiding principle called, "we measure success by the way we touch the lives of people." That overarching principle allowed us to make individual decisions. And, Bill Ury, a Harvard professor who studied us, said what we have is courageous patience. Okay? He said, it's like a bus coming around. The bus pulls up and says, would you like to join us?
00:11:01:19 - 00:11:29:09
Bob
And the individual says, you know, I'm just not ready to believe in truly human leadership and we say, that's okay, because we'll be back. The bus comes around and we say, we're here again. Are you ready to join? So part of our principle is going from using people to caring for people is a journey of multiple miles for each individual from their background, from their own personality.
00:11:29:11 - 00:11:57:03
Bob
And what we do is we focus on the believers, the people who believe and others will follow in time. It's called the law of early adoption. So I don't find any conflict because if we have an issue with an individual, we treat them with compassion and understanding and courageous patience. But at the end of the day, when you're raising a family, it's called hard love.
00:11:57:05 - 00:12:32:17
Bob
Parenting is not giving your kids what they want. Parenting is giving your kids what they need to live lives of meaning and purpose. So our guiding principle embraces the idea that we need to care for those people we have the privilege of leading. And just like parenting, you run up and some... and I remember we had an issue with an individual, and we ended up realizing that he needed to move on, and we treated him with respect and dignity when we did that.
00:12:32:19 - 00:13:00:08
Bob
And he eventually wrote us a note that said, thank you, I needed that, you know, I needed that. We didn't fire him. I hate the word fire. That comes from the French firing squad. We address issues just like we do as parents, with compassion and understanding that sometimes the best thing we can do for our team members is make a decision that that motivates them for positive change.
00:13:00:10 - 00:13:25:07
Bob
Okay? And so we approach issues. It's a very common question I get, what do you do about the people that don't get it? And my answer is simple. Treat them like you would like your son or daughter treated if they didn't get it. Okay? Treat them no less than you would want to be treated or you would want to treat them. That is our standard of care.
00:13:25:09 - 00:13:50:12
Andreas
You mentioned in the book about business being like a family, which is one side, to you, the kind of business world. Another side is business is like a sports team, where you hire the best players. How do you see the dichotomy, the difference between the two? Which side are you on if you are on one side?
00:13:50:14 - 00:14:16:02
Bob
Simon Sinek and I came to a similar conclusion. Parenting and leadership is identical. What is parenting? The stewardship of these lives that come into our families through the birth, adoption, or second marriage that we all take incredibly seriously. Okay, as parents, we want to make sure that we give these children in our span of care, the foundation to live a life of meaning and purpose.
00:14:16:04 - 00:14:40:06
Bob
What is leadership? The stewardship of these people who walk in our building and plants around the world who simply want to know they matter, giving them a sense to be a part of an organization where they feel valued, where they're contributing their skills and they go home fulfilled. And that is our goal. We really started with that simple idea.
00:14:40:12 - 00:15:16:20
Bob
We wanted people who we had the privilege of leading to go home at night feeling valued, or we actually use the word fulfilled. Because we find that when people go home that way, they treat their spouse and their children and their community dramatically differently than when they go home stressed and abused at work, which most, remember, 88%, this is an American statistic, but I find it true around the world, 88% of all people feel they work for an organization that does not care about them.
00:15:16:22 - 00:15:40:12
Bob
88% of the people. The other 12% are probably wrong, okay, that they think they're cared about. Okay? Because we are not taught to care about the people we have the privilege of leading. We're taught to use those people for our success. We might be nice to them. We might pay them well. We might give them good benefits.
00:15:40:14 - 00:16:11:17
Bob
But are we sending them home feeling, knowing that who they are and what they do matters? The receptionists, the machinist, the assembly person. Because the greatest gift we can give to somebody is to validate their dignity. And when you show people that they care, they blossom. And the bad news about Covid, Andreas, was it was highly contagious.
00:16:11:18 - 00:16:42:17
Bob
The good news about caring, it's even more contagious than Covid. When people feel genuinely cared for, it releases in them the natural capacity they have to care for others. We had no idea. And let me go back to the word family. Simon Sinek wrote a book called Leaders Eat Last. It was after he studied us. It's really about Barry-Wehmiller and our leadership model, but he also had the Pentagon, the military, which is called Officers Eat Last.
00:16:42:19 - 00:17:14:04
Bob
In the military, it's known as Officers Eat last. And so General Flynn from the Pentagon came to visit one of our major operations in Ohio with Simon. And he talked to our people for a day. Just a whole number of people working in our plant, in our offices. And he had an observation. He said, you know, Bob, one of the things that struck me today was that people described your company as a family.
00:17:14:06 - 00:17:42:19
Bob
He said, they did not describe it like a family. They described it as a family. And I paused and we had a really vibrant discussion. Simon and General Flynn and I discussion. We say, none of these people are related. They're not technically family members. But in America, what does the word family mean? It means the place of ultimate care and safety.
00:17:42:21 - 00:18:09:23
Bob
So when people describe their relationship at Barry-Wehmiller, they tend to use the word family because they feel safe and cared for. And so I would say to you, this is not about, you know, somebody once said, well, when you describe it as a family, you're talking about a parent and child relationship. I said, no, I'm talking about a relationship of caring.
00:18:10:01 - 00:18:39:09
Bob
Profound caring is what we hope comes from every family. And so I would say to you that what we have learned in this journey is that when you genuinely show that you care for people, give them a sense of safety in your business model so that they can raise a family, buy a home and have a future, they feel it validates who they are and when they feel cared for, it releases in them the capacity to care for others.
00:18:39:11 - 00:19:02:12
Bob
That is what we desperately need in the world. And let me give you one other sports analogy, which I think your audience will relate to. There was, probably five years ago or so, a, I got word from our Green Bay operation, PCMC, that a high school football coach read my book and would love to meet me.
00:19:02:14 - 00:19:26:09
Bob
I said fine when I'm in Green Bay, come up to the office. So this high school football coach in Kimberly, Wisconsin, named Steve Jones, sits down with me, said, Bob, I loved your book. It means a lot to me. And so, we have a vibrant discussion. And at one stage I said, you know, Steve, one of the problems I have with sports is that we have winners and we have losers.
00:19:26:11 - 00:19:54:21
Bob
How do you coach, in this case, football, young men about winning and losing? And he said something to me I will never forget and I hope your audience hears this message. He said, Bob, we don't coach them about winning and losing. We say, play your position well for your fellow team members. And they won 72 games in a row and five out of six state championships.
00:19:54:23 - 00:20:20:17
Bob
And now Steve is a speaker around the country on leadership. And I, because I always thought, Andreas, about me and my career, I wanted to do a good job in my role. I wanted to get promoted into higher positions, make more money. And that was the success. Steve opened my mind to a dramatically different way of seeing our role.
00:20:20:19 - 00:20:44:19
Bob
When you're in an organization and you look to your left and your right, and you see Bill and Mary on the side of you, if you play your position well, Bill and Mary have a better future. So that means moving from kind of it's all about me and my career to it's all about we moving from a me centric world to a we centric world.
00:20:44:21 - 00:21:14:00
Bob
So when you come together as a team and each of you play a position on that team in sports, you have the chance to achieve greater results when everybody plays their position well. And so I remember when my son Kyle was in high school and he was a star football, basketball, baseball player, and he loved sports, I said to him, when he was thinking about his career, I said, Kyle, business is a sport.
00:21:14:02 - 00:21:40:02
Bob
You got offense, you got defense, you got play patterns, you got a scoreboard. The only difference is you don't get hurt. And so I see business as a sport, okay? And I learned from Steve that day, as leaders we need to create an environment just not about you and your career, but a greater good of the team.
00:21:40:04 - 00:21:53:05
Bob
Play your position well so that your fellow team members have a better future along with yourself. That was extremely revealing and inspiring to me and my journey to be a truly human leader.
00:21:53:07 - 00:22:02:01
Andreas
Were you always intentional about caring for your people, Bob, or was it an "aha" moment or an inflection point in your life?
00:22:02:03 - 00:22:27:07
Bob
Good question. I when I began, remember, I have an accounting degree, and then I got an MBA from Michigan, and then I went to Pricewaterhouse for a couple of years, and then my dad invited me into the family business that I had never considered working for because it was a pretty old business that my dad had acquired, and I was always a nice, happy guy.
00:22:27:08 - 00:23:00:05
Bob
You know, I have a very positive attitude. But it was all about financial results. And I ran the business, you know, I had, I would say, I had a nice culture, but nothing special because it was really transforming old historic business into a company of the future. But what I would want your listeners here today to hear is the revealing moment, in right around, in the early 2000s.
00:23:00:07 - 00:23:21:22
Bob
I was at a wedding. A good friend of mine's daughter was marrying another friend of mine's son. We were at the wedding, and I watched my friend walk his daughter down the aisle. And everybody oohed and aahed, how precious she looked, how proud he was as they got up to the altar, he said, her mother and I give our daughter to be wed to this young man.
00:23:21:22 - 00:23:44:06
Bob
And he sat down next to his wife, and they hugged each other, and the ceremony continued. And all of a sudden I said, having done that with my two precious daughters, I realized he was told to say that, but that's not what he wanted to say. What he wanted to say is, look out young man. Her mother and I brought this precious young lady into this world.
00:23:44:08 - 00:24:04:06
Bob
We've given her all the love and care we could possibly give her, so she can be who she's intended to be. And we expect you, young man, through this marriage, to continue to honor her dignity so she can be who she's intended to be in harmony with you. And that is what we expect. Do you understand that, young man?
00:24:04:06 - 00:24:44:16
Bob
That is what every father wants to say, but is not allowed to say at the ceremony. And so my mind is going through this process, and all of a sudden the lens through which I saw our 12 to 13 thousand people around the world was changed. Prior to that wedding, I was a nice guy. We had a nice company, we were doing well, but I saw people as engineers, accountants, hourly workers, union workers, labor, you know, management. I saw people as functions for my success. And I was nice.
00:24:44:18 - 00:25:31:17
Bob
But the lens through which I was educated and experienced in the world, I saw people as functions. I introduced them as engineers. Okay? And that day at the wedding, watching that precious young man, young lady getting married and how everybody revealed in that beautiful ceremony, the lens through which I saw people was reversed, and all of a sudden I saw our 13,000 people, 12,000, 13,000 people, as somebody's precious child, been placed in my care, realizing that the way I would treat them would profoundly affect their health and the way they would go home and treat their marriage and their relationship with the children and behave, that was a transform... That is in my speech.
00:25:31:22 - 00:25:54:00
Bob
That is the biggest thing that people take away. The way we see people affects the way we treat people. And I give you a really short story that validates that. I gave a speech in Amsterdam at the major business school at the invitation of two McKinsey partners. One partner had to leave after my speech to go to Manchester, England, to a client.
00:25:54:00 - 00:26:14:17
Bob
The other partner took us back to their offices. We were going to have a roundtable discussion with their very talented team and we had our lunch. We were sitting down, and then the partner who had left to go to the airport walks in the office, and I said, what are you doing here? I thought you were leaving. He said, I got to tell you a story.
00:26:14:18 - 00:26:31:22
Bob
I heard your talk. I enjoyed it, but I had to get in a cab to get to the Amsterdam airport. And the cab driver turned out to be a young man who made some mistakes in picking the route to get me to the airport, and we got stuck in a terrible traffic jam. I was going to miss my flight.
00:26:31:22 - 00:26:54:12
Bob
Irritated that this cab driver didn't know the best way to get the airport, I said, take me back to the office. As I was driving back to the office, I was thinking about your talk and all of a sudden I looked in that front seat and saw that young man, not as a taxi driver. I saw him as somebody's son.
00:26:54:14 - 00:27:16:22
Bob
And who had made a mistake. And when I related to my own son, it dramatically changed the way I treated that young man in terms of giving him some feedback on the route and the decision. It profoundly affected the way I talked to this young man when I didn't see him as a cab driver, I saw him as somebody's son.
00:27:17:00 - 00:27:45:05
Bob
So that same analogy, when you look at the people in your organization, not as functions, but as somebody's child and you treat them like you would like your child treated with that standard of care, it profoundly affects the way you treat them. So the lens through which you see people at work, at home, in our community, in the world, profoundly affects the way you treat them.
00:27:45:07 - 00:28:09:13
Andreas
And how important is it to get people to play as part of, you know, taking care of everyone as someone else's child? You mentioned in the book about scoreboards being for basketball teams, but not just for basketball teams, but also for business and how this changed the environment and culture at PCMC.
00:28:09:15 - 00:28:24:08
Bob
So good question. So when Harvard wrote the case study on our culture about ten years ago, they asked me to come up to Harvard when it was going to first be used to teach a group of global executives.
00:28:24:10 - 00:28:51:01
Bob
So I fly up to Harvard, I'm sitting in an auditorium with 130 global executives, average age 48, 80% from around the world. And they had studied Barry-Wehmiller's life story the night before and came in to discuss it. Jan Rifkin, the professor doing a fabulous job discussing the case and pulling out thoughts about leadership. I was just an observer sitting in the side of the auditorium.
00:28:51:03 - 00:29:21:08
Bob
Jan never said I was going to say anything. You know, I was just observing the case and at the end of the discussion, Jan asks a similar question you just asked. He said, Is Barry-Wehmiller's success its culture or its business strategy? And they had about another five minutes of vibrant discussion and then they voted. 75% said the key to our success is our culture.
00:29:21:10 - 00:29:44:05
Bob
Jan looked over at the side of the room, saw me sitting, said, Bob, would you like to comment? I had never given that question one ounce of thought. I stand up in front of these executives from around the world, and I said, I understand why you feel our culture is the foundation of our success, but let me give you my reaction to that question, and I'll use an analogy.
00:29:44:05 - 00:30:18:02
Bob
When Ferrari builds the ultimate high performance racing engine, if you put 85 octane engine in that... gasoline in that engine, it'll start, it'll run down the highway and it'll go fast. But it probably won't win a race. If you put 91 premium acting in that engine, that engine will perform to its potential. So what I'd say to you is the foundation of our success is the business model I designed in 1988 called the strategy for growth, value and liquidity.
00:30:18:02 - 00:31:00:09
Bob
Intentional business model from my experiences in the 80s that I felt would give our people a better future. So the engine is our business model. The culture is the premium fuel that allows that engine to perform. But you can't necessarily put premium fuel in a Toyota and think you're going to race a Ferrari. Okay? So the foundation of a leader's responsibility is a business model where your people feel safe so they can raise a family, provide a health care and a home for their children in your span of care.
00:31:00:11 - 00:31:41:21
Bob
And so the foundation of our success is the business model I designed in 1998, when we were at 20 million that I hoped that business model would get us to 100 million. And that business model got us to $3.5 billion, and our share price has gone up over 10% a year for 25 years. And so I would say to you that culture is what activates your business model, but you got to make sure as a leader that your business model is robust and gives your people a grounded sense of hope for the future.
00:31:41:23 - 00:31:52:08
Andreas
How do you respond to a CEO that says, of course we have a culture, and that's what HR does? That's, you know, HR is responsible for culture.
00:31:52:10 - 00:32:15:22
Bob
That is a sad statement. Okay? That's like saying who's responsible for the culture in your family? Some outside source? School? Our primary responsibility as leaders is to give those people in our span of care a grounded sense of... That is our primary responsibility to...
00:32:16:00 - 00:32:45:08
Bob
Again, people, purpose and performance. It starts with seeing the people. That is the role of a leader. You cannot delegate culture, you cannot delegate caring. The problem is our universities don't teach leaders how to care. They teach leaders how to achieve organizational goals which are normally monetary. And so they're not bad people. They were just not taught how to care.
00:32:45:10 - 00:33:09:11
Bob
Remember, I was dealing with one of the world's leading airline executives and he heard my speech, this message you've heard today. And he came up to me and said, I thought my job was to build the world's biggest airline, which I did. He said, but it never occurred to me until you just spoke to care for our hundreds of thousands of people that work for our organization.
00:33:09:13 - 00:33:54:10
Bob
You have given me a whole new purpose in life. So I would say to you that a CEO's primary responsibility is the men and women in their span of care that we've invited into our organization to give them a sense of value, to send them home at night, knowing that who they are and what they do matters within a business model that gives them a sense of safety so they can count on you. That is what leaders do. They don't get into the nitty gritty of everything. They make sure that they have a business model that gives their people a sense of future and a culture where people go home at night knowing that they matter.
00:33:54:12 - 00:34:46:01
Bob
And the problem is they're not taught or rewarded to do that. They are taught to achieve financial goals and create wealth. I tell CEOs around the world, the greatest act of charity is not the checks you write to noble causes. The greatest act of charity is the way you care for the people you have the privilege of leading. We wouldn't need all the charities to heal the brokenness in the world if we had leaders in every part of society who looked at the people they led, as somebody's precious child and treated them accordingly. That would heal this poverty of dignity we have in this world. So we have economic prosperity, but we don't have human prosperity. We have the highest level of depression, anxiety and suicide.
00:34:46:01 - 00:35:36:02
Bob
And it's getting worse because of the pressure for I want wealth and I want it now. We've become very short-term focused on wealth creation, which actually destroys human value for economic value and we've got to... So we have our Leadership Institute where we're trying to help people learn to care. And then we have an even greater effort to transform business education in the world to create tomorrow's leaders, graduates from our schools, ready to go out into society with the skill, the human skills, to treat people with respect and dignity and therefore achieve business results that create human and economic value in harmony.
00:35:36:04 - 00:36:04:06
Andreas
So someone listening to your message and really opening their eyes and saying, okay, I can see this is something to teach me. And next day they go into the office. How do you help them take the next baby steps from the inspiration to action?
00:36:04:08 - 00:36:31:02
Bob
What I tell people said, okay, Bob, what do I do? First of all, I am simply sharing with you a blessing that I've been given about the way I think the world was intended to be. Not just in business, in the military, government, health care, nonprofits. I speak in every part of society, and I see the same brokenness.
00:36:31:02 - 00:37:01:20
Bob
We don't have leaders who have the skills and courage to care. So what I tell people is we created an animated... I did a TED Talk about 8 or 10 years ago. And they have done animated version. So they took a 20 minute TED Talk into like a 9 or 10 minute animated version. Go back and sit down with your team and take ten minutes and show that TED Talk and say, how does this relate?
00:37:01:22 - 00:37:27:04
Bob
How do you feel about this? Are we being good stewards? Is there something here that we could grasp and grow with and be better stewards of the people whose life we touch through our organization? And if people said, it's interesting, but I don't know how to do that. The reason we wrote the book was to be a how-to book.
00:37:27:06 - 00:37:47:11
Bob
The first third of our book is our journey from management, and I believe the word management is a broken word that means the manipulation of others for your success, to a journey of leadership, which is the stewardship of the lives you have the privilege of leading. Sending people home, knowing that who they are and what they do matters.
00:37:47:14 - 00:38:17:11
Bob
So that journey is what we hope to take people on in the book. And do a book study. Have the team read the book, debate it and see if it resonates with your purpose in your heart and soul. Okay? We're not trying to change everybody. We are looking for the people who believe what we believe and want to join us in this healing journey so we can start having a world where everybody matters, where success is not money, power and position.
00:38:17:16 - 00:38:43:21
Bob
It is living life fully with the gifts you have in service of others. So you can take it step by step. Look at your business model and embrace practices that focus on giving your people a good future. All I can say to you is we were doing well with my traditional management background and practices to create value.
00:38:43:23 - 00:39:10:23
Bob
And it's in '88 when we came out with this new business model, we started again. We wanted to grow from 20 million to 100 million, which seemed like a lot. And we were doing fine, we were well on that journey. And these revelations occurred when all of a sudden, the lens through which I saw people changed and I'd say to you, the curve of growth, it was like we went from 85 octane to 95 octane fuel.
00:39:11:00 - 00:39:42:17
Bob
Because when people feel valued, clearly, they will share gifts with you that they didn't even know they had as a part of a team, not just for their success because they care for their fellow team members, because they feel cared for. It releases them the capacity. It's only logical that people who feel valued and safe are going to share fully their gifts with you, but they can't be any better than your business model that you have blessed them with as your leadership role.
00:39:42:19 - 00:40:07:11
Bob
If you have a failed... If you made Polaroid cameras, you're probably going to hurt your people. If you made NCR cash registers, you're probably going to hurt your people. Okay? So you've got to have a business model that is the foundation. Just like as a family member, you got to have a job that creates value so you can care for your children, provide for housing and health care and education.
00:40:07:13 - 00:40:26:09
Bob
As a business, we got to have a business model that creates value, human and economic value. And then people will share gifts with you and they'll go home at night valued. And we can start healing this poverty of dignity we have in the world where people feel used, they don't feel cared for.
00:40:26:11 - 00:40:37:06
Andreas
So I'm hearing business and the business model and strategy are the road, how many lanes or how straight it is and the culture is the accelerator or the gas.
00:40:37:08 - 00:41:03:02
Bob
It's the premium fuel that allows... It can't make your business model perform greater than its potential. You can't have a caring culture and Polaroid cameras when Polaroid camera instant cameras are going out. So again, you have to look at your culture as it activates and captures the value of your business model. But it can't compensate for a poor design business model.
00:41:03:02 - 00:41:23:01
Bob
Okay? So as a leader, your primary responsibility is to look, and that's what I did in 1988 when I had a chance to start again with a $20 million company. I had a vision of a business model around balance of products, markets and technology. So that should something change, our people would be safe.
00:41:23:03 - 00:41:51:07
Bob
And then we came along with that engine, and we went from 85 octane to 91 octane, and our performance went up. Because when people feel cared for, they will share gifts. And, what we have seen, you will attract unbelievably talented people to your organization. I had 93 people from around the country on a call yesterday that knew the organization.
00:41:51:12 - 00:42:22:03
Bob
And almost to a person, they said they heard about the culture, they read about it. It was incredibly attractive to them, given what they'd experienced in other companies. And now that they're part of it, it's even better than they thought. So attraction of talent, the release of the capability of the talent. We need a human revolution to align with the industrial revolution, to heal this poverty of dignity, when people feel used for other people's success.
00:42:22:05 - 00:42:33:10
Andreas
And as we wrap up the podcast, Bob, what would you whisper to the ear of a leader who's not intentional about caring for people or their culture?
00:42:33:12 - 00:43:00:21
Bob
I would say what I said in my speeches every day: We are self-destructing as a world. Why would you bring a child into this world when we know that 88% of all people feel they work for an organization that doesn't care about them, and we are the problem. I talk to CEOs all the time and I say, you're worried about the cost of healthcare?
00:43:00:23 - 00:43:31:02
Bob
You are the problem. 88% of all people don't feel valued. When they don't feel valued, it impacts their health, it impacts are family members. We are self-destructing as a society for economic gain. And what we're getting is a poverty of dignity, not a poverty of money. I have never had a CEO debate. I've, again, 80 speeches around the world last year in every part of society, twice at the United Nations.
00:43:31:04 - 00:43:57:18
Bob
I would say to your audience the validation of the interest in the book, the validation of the Harvard case study, this McKinsey book coming out, nobody debates what I said to you. They just don't know how. If I walked outside and the moon was out and I said, look at the moon, they say, yeah, I don't debate there's a moon, but I have no idea how to get there.
00:43:57:20 - 00:44:38:02
Bob
Okay? I present a vision of the world the way it was meant to be. Nobody debates that with me. They just have done their education and their experience and the way they're promoted and rewarded. They have no idea how to get there. They're not bad people. We have a society. The Industrial Revolution forgot one key thing. As we come together in organizations, we need leaders who know how to be good stewards of the people who join this organization, and we send them home fulfilled each night, which will create better families, heal the brokenness we're seeing in our communities.
00:44:38:04 - 00:44:57:16
Bob
Healing a lot of the issues with kids. We could heal the brokenness in the world, if we had leaders who had the skills and courage to care. Nobody debates. Not at Harvard, not at McKinsey, nobody debates what I just said to you. They just don't know how to do it.
00:44:57:18 - 00:45:09:20
Andreas
And, Bob, where can people find more about you and follow your work and start being more conscious about leadership?
00:45:09:20 - 00:45:26:21
Bob
Well, the beauty is that Simon Sinek invited me to do a TED Talk at Scott Air Force Base about 10, 12 years ago that has become, you know, listened to around the world where I shared this vision about ten years ago. Then we have the book, which is a how-to, we have a podcast.
00:45:27:02 - 00:45:59:00
Bob
There must be 20 or 30 speech talks on YouTube. Everything I've shared with you is out in society. Again, there's no way this accountant from North Saint Louis running a manufacturing firm had these thoughts. Some higher power, I am convinced without a doubt, has blessed me with this awakening, these revelations of the way the world was meant to be, where everybody matters.
00:45:59:02 - 00:46:33:15
Bob
And I welcome anybody to join us in this journey to start healing this poverty of dignity. It will mean more to your life than you can imagine. The feedback you will get. Remember, the feedback we get from our speeches normally gets a standing ovation in every audience. The interest in the book. It awakens people to a higher calling of leadership, moving from management to leadership, from using people to caring about people and healing this poverty of dignity.
00:46:33:15 - 00:46:58:01
Bob
So it is all out there waiting for people to decide to join. We are focusing on the early adopters to continue to show. This is not a Bob Chapman thing. This is not a Barry-Wehmiller thing. This is a universal message that we can all create a better future for our children, our communities, our friends and our families, if we had leaders with the skills and courage to care.
00:46:58:01 - 00:47:33:07
Bob
So we're working really hard in education while we're trying to heal the adults that have not been taught this. And I very much appreciate the opportunity to share this with your audience. Clearly, we're very aligned in our feelings, and I'm going to stand on every mountaintop I can until my last day trying to heal the brokenness we all feel in the world and break down the barriers between communities, countries, so we see everybody is somebody's precious child. So thank you for the opportunity.
00:47:33:09 - 00:47:41:14
Andreas
Thank you for your vision and your wisdom. You speak like an apostle of business as the greatest force for good.
00:47:41:16 - 00:47:52:14
Bob
I will say to you, Andreas, I had a chance to speak at a special class at Harvard, and the professor I was working was had a Harvard Divinity degree, a Harvard MBA.
00:47:52:14 - 00:48:17:04
Bob
He's one of the top Harvard professors. And after a similar discussion I had with him for about an hour and a half, he looked at me dead serious and he said, and this is the greatest compliment I will ever get in my life. He said, Bob, you are a true modern day prophet in the world. I had to go up and look about what the word prophet means because I thought it was P-R-O-F-I-T.
00:48:17:06 - 00:48:37:10
Bob
A prophet is somebody who speaks the Word of God. That is the way I feel. There's no way this accountant running a manufacturing company could possibly have come to these ideas on my own intellect and education. I've been blessed with a vision of the way the world was intended to be, for everybody matters.
00:48:37:12 - 00:48:45:20
Andreas
Thank you. Thank you, and I hope your message reaches as many ears and screens as possible. And thank you...
00:48:45:20 - 00:48:50:12
Bob
It's up to you now. That's up to you. Thank you for your time.
00:48:50:13 - 00:49:13:14
Andreas
And... Thank you to those who listened to us, for listening to this, another episode of Rethink Culture. If you enjoyed it as much as I did, creating it and listening here to Bob Chapman talk about human leadership, you can leave a five star rating wherever you listen to your podcasts.
00:49:13:17 - 00:49:39:16
Andreas
And, you can also subscribe to the channel so you never miss a future episode. It helps me, helps the show, helps everyone learn from visionaries like Bob. And if you have just listened to us but not watched, you can go to YouTube and see the video. And finally, if you want to know more about how you can measure your culture, you can go to rethinkculture.co.
00:49:39:18 - 00:49:48:18
Andreas
And like I like to say, keep on leading and creating a healthier, happier workplace for you and for those around you.