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Join Derek Hudson as he explores Essential Dynamics, a framework for approaching the challenges facing people and organizations. Consider your Quest!
Hey, everybody, and welcome to essential dynamics. My name is Bryn Griffiths, and, of course, Derek Hudson's with us as we start another New Year twenty twenty six. Happy New Year, by the way.
Derek:Hey. This is amazing. 2026.
Bryn:Can you believe this? It's only episode 100 and 127.
Derek:Isn't that great?
Bryn:It's amazing. It's not amazing that we've got to a 127. It's amazing we've done them over the I don't How many years has this been?
Derek:Well, it started almost five years ago. Wow.
Bryn:So what do we do to how do we how do we, you know, how do we break into a new year? Like, what what do you wanna do today on this particular episode? So,
Derek:Brandon, there's been something that's been on my mind for actually months, if not years. And that is the relevance of essential dynamics to young people. And so this one's for the kids. And I'm not sure if it's this episode, the next couple episodes, or maybe maybe it's this year. But I really wanna reach youth and young adults and give them some tools that I think will really help.
Derek:So that's why that's why I wanna talk about today.
Bryn:Alright. Well, how do we jump in on this one then?
Derek:Well, first, I guess maybe I'm gonna state some of my qualifications Okay. For having this conversation. You know, like my track record on Essential Dynamics is established. You can check out my stuff, the wiki and a 126 podcast episodes. But it's really interesting that I have been working with young people since I was a young person.
Derek:We when we graduated from high school, everyone did not everyone knows this, it was the same year.
Bryn:Yes, it was.
Derek:I 17. And my first volunteer responsibility as an almost adult was to be the assistant leader to a cup pack that my mom was in charge of. And then I was I was a missionary and then I came back and immediately started working with with boy scouts and young people in our church. I basically haven't stopped. I have done literally hundreds of, let's say, guiding interviews with young people.
Derek:I've helped in sports and scouting. I'm I teach at the university. I just I spend a lot of time with young people. One of the cool things for me is I I don't think I'm very critical of any particular generation of young people. It's actually not that easy to be 18 or 22.
Derek:And I think sometimes they get a they get a tough they're tough judges by people older than them who don't know what it's like to be 20 years old in 2026.
Bryn:Right.
Derek:And I think I'm I'm sympathetic to that. I'm young at heart. Raised four kids. Got seven grandchildren now. I think I'm, you know, as cool as you can be as a dad and a grandpa without trying to be cool because a lot of times that's not your job.
Bryn:You can't force it. You cannot force that.
Derek:No. You can't. You can't. But anyway, I'm I love I love young people. And why do I love young people?
Derek:I love young people for who they are and for their potential. And so essential dynamics is really about how do we realize potential, not just as individuals, but working together in organizations, groups of people. So I think there's a ton of stuff that Essential Dynamics can help young people with. And I also think that young people might be the best audience I have for Essential Dynamics because they're not messed up yet.
Bryn:Yeah. Okay. So so so like I said, you gotta start somewhere. Right?
Derek:Yeah. Yeah. So here's here's what, you know, I I think the reason that we keep coming back to essential dynamics and and when I'm thinking about young people is that you're gonna learn this stuff either the easy way or the hard way. And there's stuff that just isn't taught in school. We learn the subjects, but we don't learn how to put it together.
Derek:And we certainly don't learn how to put it together in life. And then you go get a job and you and they want you to do your very specific job and they don't teach you how it all fits because actually nobody knows. So most adults, they they kind of live the patterns but they can't explain them. What I do find though is in the great stories, the lessons are easier to see than they are in our own lives. And so one of the things I'm trying to do with essential dynamics is figure out ways to help people understand what's really going on.
Bryn:When you say great stories, what are you talking about here? Well, I'm talking about
Derek:literature, history, popular culture, movies, novels, the hero's journey. There's there's lessons in those that somehow you can graduate from university and never be exposed to unless you're in literature and then you think it's about literature and you don't appreciate that it's actually about the job you're gonna take at the bank.
Bryn:Right. The the the other one too for me is the moment when you are able to take what you were taught, maybe in high school, and actually be able to apply it. The execution for me comes at different ages, I think, for different people, but it I always love it. And it's still happening to me now in my sixties where I go, why am I figuring this out today? Like, where have I been the last forty five years?
Bryn:That kind of thing. I just think everybody gets to their destination at a different point in time, and it's all stuff you learned earlier that you wish you had applied earlier.
Derek:Well, what another way that I like to look about it is that we're talking about the simplicity on the other side of complexity. So we learned stuff as a kid and everything is it's kinda dumbed down. It's simple. You know, if you are nice to people, they will be nice to you. If you work hard, you will do okay.
Derek:And Canada is a great country to live in. And and you start with that stuff. And that's that's simplicity. And the problem with simplicity is it only works kind of in in the classroom, around the kitchen table, and it doesn't survive very well when you get into the outside world. And so when we bump into complexity, all kinds of stuff happens.
Derek:And we we find out that life is messier and harder. People are kind of annoying sometimes. You can do all the right stuff and not get ahead. And all the stuff kind of piles on and you get get into this mess of complexity and you can get overwhelmed. You can get cynical.
Derek:You can kinda feel like giving up. And the answer to to this problem is not to dig into more and more complexity. Although, the university might have other ideas about that. The idea is to get through it and to get to the simplicity on the other side of complexity, which is hard fought. But when you're there, life becomes a lot more simple and enjoyable.
Derek:And I think essential dynamics is a way to look at things where we can get through easier and fast. I don't know about easier. We can get through, get value out of the hearts part part in the middle and get to simplicity on the other side of complexity. And I just wanna I just wanna pull up the quotation. It's Oliver Wendell Holmes.
Derek:Yes. Who was a US, I think, supreme court justice. He was a judge anyway. And he's quoted saying, I would not give a fig for the simplicity on this side of complexity but I would give my life for the simplicity on the other side of complexity. Wow.
Derek:So that's why I wanna kinda explore today.
Bryn:Okay. I I do have to say the one thing too. And, you know, as you and I know, I I don't I I don't tell a lot of people, but having gone through a cancer battle the last six years, The one thing I've learned in the last six years, and I'm in my sixties, is to to focus better and to make things simpler, simplify. Right? Those are my two keywords now as I move forward through the the, the older part of my years.
Bryn:Okay? The other thing I've learned is that there's internal and there's external forces. I put a lot of pressure on myself. That's internal. However, a lot of what I do or what I go through is determined by the external forces.
Bryn:There's a lot of things coming together here, Derek.
Derek:Oh, yeah. And it's overwhelming. And if you're 18 years old and you've just realized that life is harder than you ever thought, it can be phenomenally overwhelming. And so you're gonna go through hard times and what Essential Dynamics really tries to do I mean, we start with the metaphor of the quest. Right?
Bryn:Right. Let's go. Let's do that.
Derek:Yeah. So the thing about the quest is it's only interesting if it's hard. Like, we don't wanna hear a story about a man walked out of his house, got to his destination, and everything was great. We want it we want we wanna see that that call to adventure where you're comfortable where you are, except you're not really happy. And then some circumstances are thrust upon you where it's like, well, you have to make a choice.
Derek:And are you gonna are you gonna go on the journey or are you gonna avoid this opportunity? And of course, you go on the journey or there's no story. But as soon as you go on the journey, then now you're facing all kinds of opposition and hardship. And this is is not something that a lot of young people are prepared for. You know, we were we were pretty competitive when we played sports as kids.
Derek:Oh, sure. Even when they weren't organized. But now organized sports, there's, you know, participation ribbons and there's playing time expectations and stuff like that. I mean, there's lots of considerations for that, but sometimes you don't win. Sometimes you get a bad call.
Derek:And sometimes the tearing is such that you're up against bigger, stronger players and they're and they're gonna beat you. And and that's just sort of part of it. And I'm not sure that that we prepare young people. Young people are probably maybe never prepared for that. So the question is when you hit that opposition, what do you do about it?
Derek:And I do have a story that I do I do wanna share that and you may have seen the movie. I read the book. I haven't seen the movie. It's called the boys in the boat. And it's about the University of Washington rowing team during the depression.
Derek:And so rowing when you think of rowing, you think of Oxford and Cambridge. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Derek:But, you know, what are what do you need for a rowing team? Well, you need a large body of water, and you need climate such that it, you know, it doesn't freeze on you so that you can train. And so this is this the story the book is told from the point of view of Joe Rance who grows up in a dysfunctional family. His mom dies when he's a kid. His dad remarries and his new mom doesn't accept him as well, his dad's wife doesn't accept him as a child in the family.
Derek:He eats too much or whatever. So he gets kicked out. So he's 15 years old and he's like basically surviving in the Northwest Pacific Northwest woods trying to find enough to eat. He eventually makes it his way to University of Washington And he hears that if you're on the rowing team, they feed you. And they have team accommodations.
Derek:And so he gets through university by working part time and taking advantage of the fact that if you're on the rowing team, your costs are subsidized. And so he joins the rowing team now. He's in the eights. And the thing about that is it's a physically demanding sport. Like, every muscle of your body, highly aerobic, all it is is pain.
Derek:You don't even see the direction that you're going. Right? You look just look at the coxswain. He steers Yep. And yells at you, and you just endure pain.
Derek:And he he finds out that he's good at this. And University of Washington is very well coached and they have a great boat maker and they are very competitive. And so he eventually puts together pretty impressive career at the University of Washington. But they always come from behind and they're beating bigger, better, more funded schools. It's a fantastic story.
Derek:I I can't do it justice. But the the really cool thing happens is the timing works just right, that they win the national championship, which means they're The US team going to the Berlin Olympics. And they end up in the final match next to the German team. And the officials have rigged it so that the German team has the inside track, which is shorter, cleaner water, and they're on the outside with the waves. And anyway, they are neck and neck.
Derek:And Joe Rantz has this team has finally figured out how to row together. In fact, one of the guys on the team is sick but they won't put a sub in because this is the team that's gelled and they can't risk it. So he doesn't even know where he is, but they stick him in the boat. And they are coming up on the finish line and I'm gonna have to spoil the ending, but it wouldn't be a book if if it ended any...
Bryn:Don't tell me they come back and win this thing.
Derek:So this is the this is the I wanna share this quotation and then I hope I can tie it into our story. Okay. So Joe, there he's not sure that they're winning and he is at the ultimate like, he's hit the wall. He's at the ultimate edge. And then this is this is what the author describes.
Derek:There had come a singular moment when Joe realized with startling clarity that there was nothing more he could do to win the race beyond what he was already doing. Except for one thing. He could finally abandon all doubt, trust absolutely without reservation that he and the boy in front of him and the boys behind him would do all would all do precisely what they needed to do at precisely the instant they needed to do it. He had known in that instant that there could be no hesitation, no shred of indecision. He had had no choice but to throw himself into each stroke as if he were throwing himself off of a cliff into a void with unquestioned faith that the others would be there to save him from catching the whole weight of the shell on his blade. And when he did that and his teammates all did that, they had just enough to get past the Germans unexpectedly win the gold medal in eights rowing in the nineteen thirty six Olympics.
Derek:That is a way of describing the simplicity on the other side of complexity. You cannot tell the eight I think he's probably 20 when he started university. You can't tell that kid. All you have to do is row with your team in unison and you'll win. You have to go through it all to get there.
Derek:But when you get there, it's actually very simple. And so what I'm trying to do with Essential Dynamics is not well, I'm not trying to take the work out, but Joe is well coached.
Derek:It's very important. Very, very important. Oh. Yep.
Derek:But they had they had to, like, accept the system and step into the system and be one with their with their teammates. And that's, I think, an inadequate way of describing what the simplicity is on the other side. And you we can't give it to you, but we can help you get there.
Bryn:You know, the moment you started going down this road with this particular story, the one thing I I I thought of, you you talked about how this one particular person got his life together, gets in a boat with seven others. And you come to realize that I can do the very best that I can do, but I have to be in sync with seven other people. Right? And if there's one thing I love I love being involved with teams. It's it's fun.
Bryn:But man, oh, man, there's something sweet about being able to pull everybody together for that one for that one ideal goal. Right? Yeah.
Derek:So the rowers call it swing. I talk about flow. And so let's now let's bridge a little bit here and say, okay. So what are why would I wanna talk to young people about stuff like this? Because there are so many stories in this book about when the team didn't have flow.
Derek:And it only takes one guy to leave his paddle in his oar in the water a split second too long and it just pulls the boat off.
Bryn:Drag.
Derek:Yep. And so there's all kinds of ways to mess up. And when they get flow, it's not like they're not working hard. They're working at their limit but it's all all of the energy is concentrated on where they need to go. And so as a young person, it's so easy to expend your energy inefficiently, in the wrong direction with wasted time, addictions, I guess, inactivity and sloth.
Derek:All those things, like, there's all different ways to not have flow in your life. And maybe there's only one way to have flow. And that and it's not the same for every person, not the same for every time in your life. But when you figure out what's moving you forward and what's holding you back, you have access to something that you can't appreciate till you get there.
Bryn:Often you hear that. Right? You hear that from, well, I'll say Stanley Cup champions. They go, you know what? Just can't believe that we we were able to put it all together and get it done.
Bryn:And, you know, you always imagine hoisting that cup or that mug or hanging onto that gold medal. But man, oh, man, to get there is not easy. But when you get there and you look at your teammates, it's an amazing thing.
Derek:Oh, it's a great it's a great feeling, and it it happens in in all kinds of ways. So as a young person, I'm gonna pull us back now because we're getting on time here. Why Essential Dynamics? And then why this, you know, search for flow and simplicity? And that's and that's really because we have the opportunity to make all kinds of different choices.
Derek:And we don't get taught about how to make those choices. We get taught about math and English and social and there's some nuggets in there but we don't we're not we're not taught how to pull it together. Where central dynamics says it's normal to face opposition. It's supposed to be hard. Let's get really clear on the purpose.
Derek:And guess what? When you're really struggling on the purpose, that's okay because as we've discovered, there's actually competing purposes. And when you can get clear on that, like for example, let's just go as a university student, you're supposed to use this time to become a human, a social human, you know, perhaps even to find a life partner and get, you know, get set up to establish a family that's really productive for society. And you have to go to class. And if you just go to be social, you you might not end up with all the tools you need to be able to be successful in life.
Derek:But if you hit the books all the time and aren't social, you you might wake up and find in some years in the future that you've you've you need to go back and pick up some skills to to have the real life.
Bryn:Can all of this work for a guy who's working at an auto center as well? Not just going to university? I mean, I know it's all very different but at the end of the day, we're all kind of going in the same direction,
Derek:It's aren't not different. Like I said, that purpose is know, mean, you could say it in a couple of ways. But one is to to be yourself and the other is to contribute to society. And sometimes you have a job that contributes to society that isn't really who you are.
Bryn:Right.
Derek:Yeah. And maybe and maybe that's okay because you've come to that fact. Like, I used this example in an episode years ago. The new Canadian who comes brings her family to Canada with credentials that aren't recognized anymore and they take a job that's way beneath their qualifications so that their kids can graduate from high school and have opportunity here in Canada. There's a purpose there that's so strong it it makes it all worth it.
Derek:And so as a young person, need to find that find that purpose. And then you have to be real about what's propelling us forward, the drivers, and what's holding us back, the constraints on the path. And they only make sense if you understand the purpose. And then, know, Essential Dynamics talks about how we relate with people. And those are all those are the things that causes problems in our life is is how we be how we stay true to ourselves and relate to other people, how we deal with opposition, and how we decide where to point our time and attention, energy, and effort in our life.
Derek:So I'm attempting this year both through the podcast and through other means, writing and social to try and give young people access to some of this stuff so they can feel the value of the hard times they're having and they can make good choices, kinda see the system in their own life for their own selves and also to be far more useful in organizations where they work than maybe some of their older peers who haven't figured all this stuff out. So I as I said, I love working with young people. I love their potential and let's see if we can have a connection here.
Bryn:I feed off the enthusiasm of of younger people that I that I work alongside, and I love that. The one thing that and, man, you're throwing a lot at me here at the start of 2026, but simplicity on the other side of complexity. I'm gonna have to I'm gonna be staring at that now for probably a couple of weeks trying to figure out exactly what okay. So what's the point here? Like, I gotta figure that one out.
Bryn:I think that's a great title, but it is this gonna just suddenly come to me?
Derek:Well, no. It isn't gonna suddenly come to you, but here's the first thing is what if you're looking for it? Yeah. Right. Yes.
Derek:What if you think the answer can't be adding more? The answer is not adding more detail to my life. It's not more activity. It's something else. It's clarity.
Derek:And so how do I get that? And we can in future episodes, we can talk about where, you know, where we look and how we how we practice this idea. So for this one, just introductory is it's a lot of work, but look for the simplicity on the other side of complexity and I and don't settle for the quick and easy explanation that doesn't survive reality.
Bryn:Right.
Derek:Don't get mired. Don't don't become a cynic in reality and just say that, you know, life is is unfair and too hard.
Bryn:We've never I can't remember the last time we did this, and that was actually how do people get a hold of you if you you know, because somebody's gonna be listening to this podcast or watching it. How are they gonna figure out this without a little bit of assistance from Derek Hudson?
Derek:Hey. Well, Derek Hudson is easily found at my company website, getunconstrained.com. But the other way to quickly engage is to go to the wiki where all the essential dynamics stuff is. The podcast show notes are there. And I recently moved it so it's easier to find.
Derek:So it's essentialdynamics.wiki.
Bryn:That's it?
Derek:Yeah.
Bryn:Okay. Wow. Lot to a lot you threw a lot on my plate today, and I'm old, but I'm learning every day. There's new stuff out there to learn every day, so I enjoyed this episode today. How do we wrap this baby up?
Bryn:And do you think we put it together in enough of you know, I mean, it's hard. The sometimes these episodes are hard to kinda bring everything together, so there's a level of clarity and simplification.
Derek:I think we're good for today, but next time I wanna talk I wanna pick this up again.
Bryn:Okay.
Derek:And and talk about I'm gonna just pitch it now. What what does maturity look like? It's a good question. Gonna I'm gonna tie maturity together with simplicity. So let's see how that goes.
Bryn:Okay. Well, I don't close this show off. I never have. I introduce you right off the top and that's my favorite part. That's the easiest part for me.
Bryn:Why don't
Derek:we close it though? Thanks very much for the conversation. Thanks to young people for listening and please let old people in on the secret as well because we're all we're all on this journey together. And so until next time, consider your quest.