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Derek and Reed reflect on the wisdom bombs dropped by our amazing guests in recent episodes.
Join Derek Hudson as he explores Essential Dynamics, a framework for approaching the challenges facing people and organizations. Consider your Quest!
And we're back for another episode of Essential Dynamics, the framework to how we live our lives. I am looking forward to this discussion, Derek. Are you there, and how are you feeling?
Derek:Reed, I'm I'm feeling really good. I'm feeling I'm gonna say blessed. Uh-huh. Blessed to know really, really interesting people, really eloquent people who've taken the time to talk to us over the past several weeks.
Reed:Oh, I think that's I I can see why you feel that way. I think that's right on the nose. I have been inspired and moved by our guests, and I want to talk about them a little bit. Going back, we've we've had this if we could make this a recap episode, I'd sure appreciate it because I'd like to talk about Jeff and Alex and Ellen and Katie and Greg and Glen and and really reflect on some of the lessons that we've learned and how we go forward.
Derek:Yes. Let let let's do that because they've been, yeah, just kind of coursing through my mind as I'm processing the the the wisdom bombs that got dropped
Reed:Yeah.
Derek:In all these episodes.
Reed:You know, one thing I've noticed in the in the past six episodes is we've talked a lot about well, you think about Katie having been what we would consider cut down in the early twenties and becoming a becoming a what is it quadriplegic? She still has some use of her her arms.
Derek:Yeah. She she described it as c seven quadriplegia. Okay. Chest chest down kinda thing.
Reed:Yeah. Yeah. And kind of kind of injury that would that would affect not only our bodies, but our minds considerably if if it would happen to any of us. And yet her optimism and her determination to succeed in the things she's doing and the contributions she's making to the world, terribly, terribly inspiring. And and I believe it was Greg McGillis, was it, who was talking about being inspired by Psy?
Reed:Was that Glenn Vanstone?
Derek:Greg McGillis. Greg McGillis. I'm sorry. Yeah. Greg Greg McGillis worked with Randy Marston.
Reed:Right.
Derek:And Randy's work was to help people with physical disabilities get access to technology and communications.
Reed:Yeah. And and what I've noticed through our guests is I mean, that was those are the, perhaps, the extremes of examples of of physical, I wanna say handicap, but they turned a handicap into a strength and been able to work and function and make an impact on the world despite what we would consider considerable I don't wanna say I I keep wanting to say handicap, and that is not the right term, I don't think.
Derek:Well, let me let me help you out, Reid. One of the principles that I've learned as I've put essential dynamics together is that growth requires opposition.
Reed:Was that was one of the points that Glenn Vanstone made. He said he was talking about how opposition is something to be embraced.
Derek:So there is there is no growth without struggle. My grandson, who's six years old, when he was three and four, very physic very physically capable for his age, not the best judgment. And so he would jump off or jump on to anything, and there's a lot of crash and burn. Yeah. And so his saying was falling is learning.
Reed:He said it as a kid?
Derek:I think someone told it to him, but he kept you know, he would crash bang and he he he you hear it in the from the other room. I'm okay. I'm alright. And then come in and say falling is learning. And so, you know, it's it's a profound principle that captured, I think, well in essential dynamics is that there has to be opposition.
Derek:And, for muscles to grow, they have to be stretched. For character to grow, it has to be stretched. And we see this in conversations we're having with people is that, yeah, you have to go through hard things. And I think Katie was really compelling because she talked about being on the bench. Right?
Derek:And she said, was sitting on this bench and I wasn't sure if I was heading in the right direction in my life. A few months later, she has this terrible accident on her birthday.
Reed:Catastrophic injury. Yeah.
Derek:And then as as her mind takes her back to the bench, she asks herself, you know, if I could have chosen a different path, would I have? And she said, yes. I'd love to be able to walk. But I don't know if I could give up what I've learned from what happened to me since.
Reed:You know, I so appreciate you bringing that up because that is a dramatic example of what many of our guests are telling us. I mean, she has a physical story that we we are riveted by because because of her experience. But all our guests are essentially saying, had a challenge. I had a setback, and now and then I had to adjust or grow. And I I remember, you know, Greg Greg McGillis told us that he was he was just stunned by a by a termination he didn't see coming in work, and it turned out to be the impetus to his rearranging his entire career.
Reed:And and everybody has had some measure of disappointment or challenge, and then and then all our guests have triumphed over those challenges. I've just been terribly inspired by that because it's just not been my experience.
Derek:Well, I I think it has, Reed, but it's easier to see other people. So, you know, we look at look at Ellen, for example, and Ellen said that her childhood dream was to be an elementary school teacher.
Reed:Yeah.
Derek:You know, Ellen is we talked about it a little bit. She's just so wise and she's able to balance the needs of the organization with every individual case and she talked about that. I don't know that you know, an eight year old kid is going to be inspired to say, when I grew up, I want to help people in big organizations, you know, realize their potential. Right. But you can look up at your school teacher and say, look at that, that person is helping me grow.
Derek:I wanna be like that person. And so, you know, Ellen's inability to find a job with an education degree, you know, and I know a lot of people like that, turned into a great blessing for the all the organizations that Ellen's worked at.
Reed:Yeah. What an opportunity. She's had such a such an impact on the places she's worked.
Derek:So so then we look at Greg, and and Greg was, you know, responsible for downhole flow monitoring and control systems, doing a good job. But, you know what I mean? There's obviously challenges in that business. And he went through, you know, a big hit.
Reed:Yep. He sure did.
Derek:And now he's he's helping, you know, what, you know, maybe us. Absolutely. You know, very personally, a few years from now, you know, have better outcomes when our brains start shutting down.
Reed:I I agree. I think if if you just remember Greg's story about his his shock at being fired and then thinking, well, what is it I really want to do? And that led him in his fifties to get a master's degree in Toronto with the cooperation of his wife and children here in Edmonton. He must have been terrified that that wasn't going to work, and he even mentioned an incident where he wasn't getting good grades at first, and he was very discouraged. I just I just think the world of him for for following through and, you know, making it happen for himself.
Reed:He's just he he just had a lot of wherewithal that a lot of us would have thought, wow. I'm sure there were people in his life who said, this is, are you sure about this? Because it sure looks like a mistake.
Derek:He he did talk to me before he headed off. Yeah. And I'm I'm sure I was measured in my comments, but inside I'm thinking I hope he knows what he's doing. You know?
Reed:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. True.
Derek:It's true. So so so, you know, growth requires opposition. That's a principle that I think plays out in essential dynamics in in different ways. We don't I don't think we have to go looking for opposition. You know?
Derek:No. No. It'll come.
Reed:It comes. You don't have to you don't have to seek it out. It's it'll come on its own. I wanna also mention about Jeff Tatz. Is that right?
Reed:Yep. Jeff was really focused on results. I mean, that's wasn't that
Derek:That's an numerous company, so that helps. Yeah.
Reed:Yeah. Of course. Yeah. And but he's he was really focused on the end product and how to get there. And I thought here's a guy whose drivers have been constraints.
Reed:I'm not sure what his constraints are. I'm sure there are constraints, but this is a guy who embraces those drivers.
Derek:So so, you know, Jeff's I think we called his episode untapped potential because that's just the way he sees the world. Yeah. And, you know, he's a I think he's a coach.
Reed:Yeah. Very much Like
Derek:like like his his you know, I think he was chasing a career in coaching coaching hockey. He's now coaching, you know, business people. Yeah. But but the idea of coaching, which is really interesting, and I and I gotta do a shout out to Ian Chisholm at the Roy Group. Coaches help people get to their potential.
Reed:That's what they're for. Sure.
Derek:You know, and I and I think about my hockey coaches and basketball coaches that, you know, yelled at me to run harder or whatever. And, you know, there's a different maybe dynamic to that in the business world, but it's about, you know, are you doing your best? And are you doing your best as an individual? Does that fit with the team? Is the team doing its best?
Derek:So there's I have a I have a ton of respect for coaching as a discipline. I've also learned that I'm not an excellent coach.
Reed:Oh, really?
Derek:Yes. Because Why
Reed:do why do you say that?
Derek:So classic coaching like business coaching, leadership coaching now is really all about helping an individual find what's inside them.
Reed:Okay.
Derek:And, you know, and having having that come out and get clarity and motivation and potential. And I sometimes am effective in helping people do that, but I also have this almost forty year career in learning stuff. Yeah. And I really have a need to share it. So so one of the one of the advantages of being a a consultant that's kind of a coach sometimes, but not just a coach, And, you know, what we might call ourselves educators with this podcast is let's put some principles out there that people can use
Reed:so they don't
Derek:have to they don't have to discover everything for themselves.
Reed:Right. Right.
Derek:But I, you know, I've been a beneficiary of coaching. In fact, I've sat in coaching sessions with Ellen. Yeah. You know, where Ellen's, know and she's really good at that. She walks through me.
Derek:Katie, that's her job now. Yeah. Is you know, and one of the cool things about our conversation with her is she's I said, what what do you need from Essential Dynamics, you know, that's not there? And she said, you know, don't forget the role of mentors.
Reed:Absolutely. I really appreciated that too. I think we really have to have to adjust our thinking on on our quest because she really had a good suggestion.
Derek:But then we turned it on her and said, Katie, part of your job now is is you're a mentor. And she said, well, I hadn't really thought of it that way.
Reed:Yeah. Well, even Derek, your comment right now that you're not a good coach, I'm thinking of all the young men that you have worked with and camped with. You're a you're a very very dutiful and dedicated hiker and camper, and you've taken countless young men and and presumably women. I don't know.
Derek:Lots lots of young women, including, you know, all my daughters and
Reed:Yeah. Yeah. And you've taken them on camps and and and hiked with them and gone through mountains and and where there are innate physical challenges that must be overcome in order to get to the place where you're going. It's just a I I think of you as a coach in that sense, and I think of you as a coach in in in your career as a consultant. I I think of you as a coach here in on this podcast because you're you are encouraging people to be their best.
Reed:You encourage me, although you have not been successful with me. I think you've I think you are a coach. And so
Derek:Well well, thank you. I just don't fit the definition, but that's that's fine. Most of us don't fit all the definitions that are are placed on us anyway. Hey. Do do you wanna talk about do you wanna talk about some of our other guests?
Derek:See if we can tie some stuff together as we as we run out of run out of time here.
Reed:Yeah. Yeah. I I I think a a common theme throughout them is what works as a person. What what works they were they were trying to individualize not only our framework, but their philosophies of life and and apply it to individuals.
Derek:So so Lindsay talked about that. Jade talked about, you know, figuring out where the child come comes from. Katie says people are messy. And then Alex kind of lays out the principle, which is context is important. And Yes.
Derek:You know, you remember he said, you can tickle your grandkid and it's good. You tickle someone on the bus, you go to jail.
Reed:Yeah. I learned that by hard experience. Yeah.
Derek:Yeah. We would really like for things to be simple and predictable, and they tend not to be, especially with people. And and so we, you know, we need to do the work to understand, you know, kind of where people are coming from. That's how you be that's how you're a good coach. That's what leadership really is.
Derek:Yeah. Is helping figure figure out where where people are coming from. And, you know, Alex I I thought it was really exact interesting example that Alex shared that teenage girls in Canada play sports. Teenage girls in Scotland don't.
Reed:Isn't that interesting?
Derek:And then at age 50, Scottish women are having heart problem and Canadian women aren't having heart problems. Yeah. And so what you do to help Canadian women be more healthy wouldn't be wouldn't fly in Scotland. Yeah. So what what does work?
Derek:So so that I found that interesting. And then, you know, the last conversation that we had last week with with Glenn Vanstone. Glenn Glenn is taking this stuff where we we've been talking about kind of personal, and he's pulling it back to the economy Yeah. You know, that that we live in.
Reed:Right. He's putting it he's putting it applying it with a broad brush.
Derek:And and what he's saying is that, you know, I mean, I I think there's a book to this name. What got you here won't get you there. And you you still have to step back and say, what's, you know, what's working in this situation? Whether you're a supervisor of three people or you're you're trying to take a company that used to work great because of what was going on in Alberta's oil patch and now has to face it's a new reality. Right.
Derek:I don't know. My mind's kinda blown. What else what else did you pick up, Irene?
Reed:Well, I'm just I I I have to say I'm impressed with the people you know. I thought I was your only friend, but, apparently, you have a vast company of people to choose from, and they are all incredibly interesting and and bring a lot to the table. Many of these people we have to meet again. I feel like we've just I have just met interesting people suddenly, and I need to know more about them. And I hope our listeners on this podcast have enjoyed and appreciated as much the lessons that we have gleaned as as we have.
Reed:I hope that's been useful, and I would like to hear from them if they have some thoughts or or comments about these podcast episodes that we do. Derek, if they wanted to comment, where would they do so?
Derek:Reid, thanks for for sharing that. And I I I think I wanna make this episode the the call for engagement episode.
Reed:Yeah.
Derek:So thank you. So derek utson dot c a has my information. There's not a chat there, but my email address is there. And we'd we'd welcome comments. And let's let's get started talking about what people are picking up from what we're saying, and particularly what our guests are saying.
Derek:What I find interesting is that Essential Dynamics is holding up at least as a conversation mechanism.
Reed:Right. It it it does. It's a good framework to start a conversation, obviously, because we've done it now 40 times. So I I do appreciate that about your framework, Derek.
Derek:And the other thing is, you know, it it's not a stretch to ask people about their quest.
Reed:That's right.
Derek:And boy, do they like talking about them.
Reed:That's really true.
Derek:And I love I love listening too when you frame it that way. Just fascinating fascinating people doing fascinating things.
Reed:Absolutely. Absolutely. Well, thank you, Derek. Derek Hudson in the studio here with me. I'm Reed McCollum.
Reed:And for Bryn Griffiths in the studio as well, our engineer, I just wanna say until next time, consider your quest.