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Glen's personal quest and how he now helps companies and communities grow by focusing on drivers.
Join Derek Hudson as he explores Essential Dynamics, a framework for approaching the challenges facing people and organizations. Consider your Quest!
And it's essential dynamics, the philosophy where we learn why we behave the way we behave as we work and live. I'm Reed McColm in this and talking today with, as always, with my guru and mentor, mister Derek Hudson. Derek, what are you what are you thinking today?
Derek:Hey. I'm I'm thinking that we're about to have a fantastic experience fantastic intellectual experience.
Reed:Wow. That would be a first. For me.
Derek:Yes. Yes. Do you have a notepad? Are you ready?
Reed:I am ready. Let's go. Are we gonna talk about new things or are we gonna are you gonna teach me?
Derek:So no. So so we have Glen Vanstone with us today.
Reed:Glenn Vanstone.
Glen:Never is.
Derek:And and Glen is a former colleague of mine. We started at Edmonton Economic Development within, like, a couple of weeks of each other.
Glen:Mhmm.
Derek:And and left Edmonton Economic Development within a couple of weeks of each other in the course of, like, seven years or something. And Glnn is a mentor to me, particularly in thinking about stuff like frameworks.
Reed:Oh. And And
Derek:So he doesn't he didn't know it at the time, but as we were knocking some stuff around trying to trying to strengthen Edmonton's economy, he planted some seeds which have come out in in Essential Dynamics. So I really have wanted to have him on. And Glen's got his own new venture. So he's Glen started New West Networks. So I you should hearing about that, about Glen's journey to how
Glen:he
Derek:became a guy who's an expert in helping businesses grow. And then if we if we get to it, I I really wanna talk about the drivers part of essential dynamics because Glenn taught me a lot about that. So tons of stuff, and Glenn hasn't even had a chance to say anything yet, we have to stop. Glenn, welcome. How are you doing?
Glen:I'm doing very well. Thank you very much, Derek. I'm not sure about the expert part, but it's it's a pleasure to be here. Always have an opinion, willing willing to share. Reid, nice to meet you, sir.
Reed:Very nice to meet you, sir. I am looking forward to what you have to say. Now first of all, how did how did you come up with your framework? What is what is your framework?
Glen:Well, I'm not sure. It it's not my framework. It's just kind of how I was looking at, the economy in general. Obviously, with with Derek and and, Evans and Economic Development, spent a lot of time thinking and working within the economy and about the economy both here and abroad. So my framework is really kinda how I was approaching what our our needs are and where we need to go with respect to our economic future.
Glen:So that kind of framework also kinda sang along very much with the idea of essential dynamics, the purpose, which direction we need to go, why, what the competition against this was, the drives that we had working for us, and the things that were holding us back.
Reed:Excellent. Well, you can it sounds like you can illustrate our philosophy very well. I'd like to our this perspective anyway, it's not I I would I'd be very interested in hearing more. Where did you start your quest?
Glen:Interestingly enough, quest, of course, changes over career. Right? So backtracking a little bit to tie it in with the central dynamics. Alberta born and bred, always been around here, wanted to get out of high school and earn a wage. You know?
Glen:Young man, let's earn a buck and and live life. Shortly after, I I didn't work out. So ended up trying to go back to school, ran into the first recession period, the national energy program, and ended up getting what was supposed to be a short part time job working over at Air Canada, the International Airport. That translated into a twenty two year career with Air Canada on the ground side, the airport side of the business. And it was traumatic.
Glen:That was the time when the industry itself was transforming from what it was to the direction it is today. A decades long battle for control of Canada's skies, everything from restructuring, bankruptcies, nine eleven, all of that process and automation, etcetera. Really kind of an interesting time to formulate the ideas. And it's really kinda where I think maybe my path and began or or my quest when because of all these industry forces, my company at the time made that strategic decision to, call it, abandon the community in favor of the fortress hub mentality that they were using to deal with global aviation change. That didn't sit very well with me.
Glen:And I was had chose this place to raise my family, and and so I wanted to see that the community succeeded despite having, something like a major carrier say, no. Not you. We're gonna go over here. So that began my separation from Air Canada. But in that time, I also had a role during the the bankruptcy process where a number of us were seconded from our regular jobs and tasked with this two year assignment to take waste out of the organization.
Glen:We had to reduce costs. And so when I think about purpose a or and purpose b or x and y, here you had a carrier that was its role from an everyday kinda deliverable was air service for Canadians and and communities to to move passengers back and forth. And purpose y, which was save the company from further bankruptcy and and destruction by tearing things apart. So I was an agent of change who hated change myself, but I was, you know, accountable for that process. So we had these two dynamics going on at the same time.
Glen:And that was interesting. But underlying all of it was that how do I help my community succeed when it's been kinda diminished, if you will, in terms of what I thought was essential for growth, meaning access to markets. And that's that's been a theme through all of my my career ever since. Eventually, got tired of of chasing airplanes, went over to the airports, and I was gonna keep my boots on the ground. Ended up very quickly in a role of promoting the community into international markets and other jurisdictions on the basis of connectivity.
Glen:How does through air service, how does a community connect with global markets, with other opportunities? It becomes an essential part of of modern business life. And so here I am in five continents doing hundreds of presentations promoting the opportunity that Alberta and and our community in region in particular represented. And it was that's when it started to form, I think, maybe some of the detail that manifested itself into the drivers and constraints piece. The fundamental question that I was I was wrestling with was, why is it that communities differ?
Glen:Why is what makes one city thrive, one community or region thrive, and others not? They all have the same essential ingredients. Is it is it luck? Is it timing? What what is it that makes one community able to be more resilient, more more prosperous in essentially the same kind of an economic climate at a macro level compared to the next one.
Glen:So this is what I wrestled with when I I I talk often about the blessing and the curse where I had the opportunity to see how other communities responded to their opportunities, embrace those opportunities, or dealt with them. And when I would fly back here, it became kind of very close. It was Canada itself was not very global in that perspective. Other communities had far broader kind of global awareness of what those opportunities are. And yet it was it was a curse for me to come back here to a certain extent and still wrestle with the status quo.
Glen:So that's where it kinda tied in.
Derek:So, Glen, we met at Edmonton Economic Development. Did the Edmonton Economic Development find you, or did you find Edmonton Economic Development? Because it sounds like you're already on a mission to to get to bring the community into where the potential that you saw others were others had.
Glen:Yeah. I got I got asked. I was invited to to to come in and and chat with the team when when I left the airports. And so we kinda found each other. I saw Evidence and Economic Development as a broader brush to work with versus primarily just the the the scope of air service connectivity.
Glen:This this allowed me to deal with a broader spectrum of businesses and interests and all those kind of tangible and intangibles associated with something as complex as an economic system of a community in a region.
Reed:How do you if I may jump in here, Glenn, how do you measure success in a community? Like, how does a how do you say one community is thriving and one is not?
Glen:Well, I think that there's there's it's always been a challenge of how do you measure prosperity. How do you measure thrive? People talk about, you know, hey. GDP group numbers are up and all that kind of great stuff or employment numbers are up, but it that to me was never satisfactory. What what made a community more successful than another?
Glen:Well, certainly, there was the the economic angle was was the community able to continue to increase in terms of number of businesses and jobs and opportunities, and at the same time, cultivate a more exciting market and more environment place for people to live, grow, and and and raise family. Part of it also was, is it a place where businesses can prosper in their space and and be successful? And and I always had a globalist view in that global context. And so on one side, you have communities that are excellent in one, and others have a more broader success spectrum, if you will, that are able to to capitalize on all that. Measuring success becomes something that moves a lot, but I think everybody knows when their community is successful, thriving, or prosperous and when it isn't.
Derek:Everybody knows. That's that's fascinating. Hey, Glenn. So in in the context of, you know, where you're setting us up here in helping communities, and and Mhmm. Let me if I just kind of frame it up this way.
Derek:When we talk about the path in essential dynamics, we talk about the drivers that help you move forward, the natural forces that help you move forward, and the constraints that are the things that hold you back. When you're at Air Canada and you were you were fighting waste, it was all kind of on the constraint side. Right? Like, what are what are the things that we're doing that aren't aren't adding value? Let's get rid of them.
Derek:I'm really interested and there's there's tons of work on lean and constraints and Six Sigma that's that's been done for many years. That's really helpful. But I always feel like the driver side is neglected.
Glen:Pretty much.
Derek:Tell tell me about your view on drivers, whether it's, in economies or for companies. What what have you learned about that?
Glen:Well, framing that up, it's an interesting question because you're absolutely right. Everybody can tell you what's wrong, but not easily are they able to tell you what really works and moves their businesses forward. So frame this up a little bit more. Toward the end of the at the EDC, we're working on a strategic plan economic plan for Edmonton. Any strategy is meant to overcome some defined challenge.
Glen:Otherwise, why would you have a strategy? It's not a calendar item. It's it's it's meant to deal with with something that you have to overcome. For me, it came down to what was the Alberta slash the Edmonton condition that we were faced. And I've always framed this out to say that, quite frankly, our current economy is built to optimize on economic conditions that no longer exist.
Glen:They they did it before. They don't, but we're built for something that were misaligned. And what is that? So put it in a in another context, a lot of businesses would talk about the opportunity of Edmonton region, but in a different way than they do in other markets, for example. They would say, Alberta is where you go to make money, not to earn it.
Glen:And it's an important distinction when when you think about what's the makeup of our economy. So in that challenge, how do we reshape our economic system?
Reed:I just wanna jump in. I I don't understand the difference between making money and earning it.
Glen:Well, think about it as Alberta had prospered as an economic engine for so long. Right? However, Canada's economic engine was part of that phrasing. Quite frankly, Alberta lives on investment capital. That's what drove the Alberta economy.
Glen:That's what drove businesses. So making money was getting in on the action. There was billions and billions of dollars coming into the province virtually unsolicited. It was energy dollars that were pouring into Alberta so businesses wouldn't build headquarters. They would send branch operations because they wanted to make money versus building a business up.
Glen:That's the big issue we have is we don't scale businesses in this province.
Reed:I see.
Glen:It's a Canadian issue too. So if we think about that context, economic systems are really complex, Multiple variables. You had doctor Clark in who talked about complexity versus what's complicated. Complexity has all these variables of interplay. So the challenge is thinking about how do we affect an economic system.
Glen:This is where the idea of what drivers and constraints go through. When we talk to the thousand business voices in preparation for the strategy plan, they would all talk about what was holding them back. It was very easy for businesses to identify their barriers because it was the things that they were trying to deal with on a daily basis. But when you turn around and say, well, what drives your business? It got much weaker.
Glen:Businesses were some of these guys were having what do mean what drives my business? Customers drive my business. No. No. What every business has customers.
Glen:Otherwise, you're not in business. So what what drives you forward? And that was really kinda hard. It was difficult for them to articulate. It was a particular element that was important.
Glen:So we had to work through all of that and try to sift that out. The idea, I think, that we were building the the the drivers and constraints model around was, hold it. Let's make something here is more fundamental, which was you talk about purpose and path and how that applies to individuals. I mean, businesses are just conglomeration of of individuals, same as community. My underlying belief is that every single day, everybody wakes up with the intention of creating value, fulfilling their purpose.
Glen:Whether it's help your family grow, keep your kids safe, you know, build your career and or aspire to to some achievement. Everybody wants to create value. That's a natural energy. So growth translated from that says that economic power really resides in that natural energy, the desire to create value, to roll up sleeves, to put in some energy, to accomplish something better than they was the day before. So in an unconstrained environment, you have unfettered growth.
Glen:Right? Everything would grow if there were no constraints. So you need the constraints as much as you need the drivers. It's the balance of what drivers and the strength of the constraints that perhaps can be molded. Can you affect a given constraint in order to augment a particular driver that will create the conditions that allow businesses and the communities to thrive and prosper?
Glen:That's the fundamental theory behind the idea of how do we take an economy that is not built for the current state or a future state, and how do we manipulate that to create the conditions by which businesses and communities can thrive and prosper. So it's fundamental, this balance of drivers and constraints.
Reed:So I love what you're saying. I I'm sorry, Derek. I was just Yeah. I love what you're saying because you are embracing, in fact, even endorsing the constraints that using the using what we consider often opposition or disadvantage or hurdles that we must jump. And you what you're just saying, I what I heard was that we need those in order to grow.
Glen:Yes. We need that kind of balance. And and so back to my question, what makes one community thrive and prosper in in current times and others fall behind because they failed to adjust? And so is it our intention, or should it be our intention? Not to just say we need more investment because that's what we're built for, or we need to create the condition, the balance of drivers and constraints that allow businesses to be able to compete and win in other markets.
Glen:And I make that distinction because that adds a new dimension. The imbalance that I talk about is we have way too many wealth servicing companies. Back to the story of people come here to make money, not earn it, versus the number of businesses that are actually generating wealth by creating goods and services that the world wants. And my argument also is that the world wants what we've got. They want good food.
Glen:They want good health medicines. They want education, and they want the technology to control their environment. Light when it's dark, heat when it's cold. What is Alberta made up of? We have a fantastic health care system.
Glen:We got a strong, durable, and and lengthy agricultural base. We sure as heck have technologies around the environment, and we have these educational platforms. So we've got all the stuff that the world really wants, but what we don't have is the environment that allows businesses to say, okay. Alberta, you know, it's not enough anymore. We need to compete and win in a global arena, and we don't do that very well in in a large state.
Glen:Like, there are good companies here that are really taking butt globally. But as a culture, as an economy, we don't have those conditions that celebrate, encourage, and and really formulate how do we take great companies or good companies that have done very well servicing the Alberta market and help them transform into businesses to compete and win internationally. Because when you generate wealth from beyond and it comes back here, it translates into growth, scaling, jobs, opportunities. And that to me is is the path that we need to think about. Balance the drivers and constraints, create the conditions that make it desirable for companies to say, I was great at making widgets for the oil sector.
Glen:Can I make doomahickies that the world wants in some other space? And if I can do that, let's go.
Derek:So, Glen, this is really inspiring, and and you learned this when you were a public servant. And and and now you're an entrepreneur. What tell me about your new venture and how this how it ties into this this thinking that that you've developed.
Glen:Well, I think that now you have introduced what's happened over the last two years. Right? So COVID occupied everything. Put companies into stasis mode, again, in general terms. But now we're emerging from what is a post pandemic environment.
Glen:Well, the issues that we had prior to COVID are the same economic issues we have post COVID, just with different color. The work that we're doing is really targeting those businesses that have reached that point where they're saying, I was great in what worked before, but I need to compete and win in new markets. And so our what we're doing is focusing on those companies that need to scale and grow in new markets. Really trying to stretch out. How do I take my services or my products?
Glen:How do I customize them? Bruce was talking about product development versus project development or product management versus project management. And how do we help those organizations say, I gotta do something. I don't know where to go. I don't know what I need to do next.
Glen:I don't know what to do with my organization, but I know I need to go and compete and win and if I'm gonna be durable and grow in the long term. So there I think there's more of those companies, and that's a space that's currently a vacuum in the I'll call it in the in public context right now. Too often, let companies get from that, great. You're a company now. Good luck.
Glen:But we don't do a good job at all, or we had don't have a system or culture that says, so I'm 50 employees. How do I get to 500? And I can't do that in if I stick my nose just solely in in the Alberta market. I need to get into South America. I need to get into areas that are new to me.
Glen:We work with companies that have kinda got to that space, but they're also humble. They're willing to learn. They they understand the challenge, but they're ready to roll up sleeves and get after it. And that's that's the space where we're we're adding in a little bit of what we know, what we've learned, and see if we can help them be successful.
Derek:So we should probably ask, what's the name of the company, and how can people find you?
Glen:It's New West Networks. New West. And the easiest thing is to give me a shout, drop me a line, Glen at New West Networks, and we'll see what we can do. Again, there are companies out there that have merged from a pandemic world and are looking at the landscape and saying, I'm at the end. Where do I go now?
Glen:And if they're willing to learn, willing to do spend, put the the legwork in, they can can beat and win.
Reed:Glen, we'll have to check-in with you and find out more about about how those some of those success stories are going and how some of those local, rather, I mean, to us, to Alberta Mhmm. Companies are thriving and we want to know. And so we'll be checking in with you again. I want to thank you very much for joining us today and telling us a little bit about your journey and how it started. I so appreciate what you've had to say and especially your work.
Reed:Please continue to help our economy and and help people in general. Thank you very much. Glen Vanstone, our guest here today in Essential Dynamics. His contact information will be on the show notes. Derek, how do people reach you?
Derek:You can find me at derek hudson dot c a on the web, and I look forward to hearing what people think about what we're doing here on Essential Dynamics.
Reed:I look forward to that too. Until next time, I'm Reed McColm. And for Bryn Griffiths in the studio, consider your quest.