Discover the transformative secrets of leadership that bridge the corporate and political realms with Tabitha Scott, a renowned thought leader on engagement and innovation. Our dialogue journeys through the complexities of thriving amid political divisiveness and pivots to the profound impact of leadership on environmental sustainability and employee productivity. We draw from the wisdom of historical figures and the dynamics of social media to offer listeners a rich tapestry of insights into nurturing growth, fostering innovation, and being the leader who moves beyond being just a boss.
As we navigate the business world's cyclical nature, comparing it to the lifecycle of living organisms, we unearth strategies to sustain and propel companies forward. Tabitha and I examine the resistance to change, emphasizing the power of momentum to keep innovation from stalling. Our conversation holds up a mirror to Blockbuster's infamous fall as a stark reminder of the perils of complacency. We unfold the AAA framework – Assess, Align, Adapt – and discuss the detrimental effects of misalignment in roles that can lead to burnout, highlighting the undeniable necessity of purposeful work in maintaining a vibrant workforce.
Wrapping up, the podcast peels back the layers of diversity and adaptability as the bedrock of a flourishing business culture, citing Richard Branson's unique hiring philosophy and the transforming potential of mergers. We dissect the parallels between the rise and fall of empires and corporations, illuminating the critical role of teamwork and diversity in long-term success. Lastly, I champion the art of risk-taking and the courage to reinvent oneself, inviting listeners to break free from self-imposed limitations and forge new paths toward a fulfilling and innovative future. Join us for this eye-opening episode that promises to reshape your understanding of leadership and personal growth.
Join the What if it Did Work movement on Facebook
Get the Book!
www.omarmedrano.com
www.calendly.com/omarmedrano/15min
Discover the transformative secrets of leadership that bridge the corporate and political realms with Tabitha Scott, a renowned thought leader on engagement and innovation. Our dialogue journeys through the complexities of thriving amid political divisiveness and pivots to the profound impact of leadership on environmental sustainability and employee productivity. We draw from the wisdom of historical figures and the dynamics of social media to offer listeners a rich tapestry of insights into nurturing growth, fostering innovation, and being the leader who moves beyond being just a boss.
As we navigate the business world's cyclical nature, comparing it to the lifecycle of living organisms, we unearth strategies to sustain and propel companies forward. Tabitha and I examine the resistance to change, emphasizing the power of momentum to keep innovation from stalling. Our conversation holds up a mirror to Blockbuster's infamous fall as a stark reminder of the perils of complacency. We unfold the AAA framework – Assess, Align, Adapt – and discuss the detrimental effects of misalignment in roles that can lead to burnout, highlighting the undeniable necessity of purposeful work in maintaining a vibrant workforce.
Wrapping up, the podcast peels back the layers of diversity and adaptability as the bedrock of a flourishing business culture, citing Richard Branson's unique hiring philosophy and the transforming potential of mergers. We dissect the parallels between the rise and fall of empires and corporations, illuminating the critical role of teamwork and diversity in long-term success. Lastly, I champion the art of risk-taking and the courage to reinvent oneself, inviting listeners to break free from self-imposed limitations and forge new paths toward a fulfilling and innovative future. Join us for this eye-opening episode that promises to reshape your understanding of leadership and personal growth.
Join the What if it Did Work movement on Facebook
Get the Book!
www.omarmedrano.com
www.calendly.com/omarmedrano/15min
I never told no one that my whole life I've been holding back. Every time I load my gun up so I can shoot for the star, I hear a voice like who do you think you?
Speaker 2:are all right. Everybody. Another day, another dollar, another one of my favorite episodes of my favorite podcast. Yes, I'm of course I'm biased. It's my own podcast and I gotta say I'm super stoked. I'm super happy I'm biased, it's my own podcast and I got to say I'm super stoked. I'm super happy I'm with Tabitha Scott. She's recognized thought leader, innovator, public speaker and a a best-selling author. Currently she advises on engagement, innovation and leadership for major organizations. Tabitha has spearheaded IT strategy during the record expansion phase for a Fortune 400 firm and has held roles as CEO of Cole Scott Group congratulations, military assistance company as well as SVP of Innovation and Sustainability. I'll bow for BD Investments and Lend Lease Americas. That's a mouthful right there Meeting significant business shifts.
Speaker 3:I feel really tired now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, energy science to boost organizational intervention and productivity. Tabitha was instrumental in forming the world's largest solar-powered community, earning white house recognition for tech advancements. Congratulations on that thanks, man you know I didn't read the full part you got. So did you go to the white house and everything dude I got to go twice yeah president joe or president don it was obama once and uh bush to the other time. So I've done different committees yeah, for each of those completely two, two different um styles of leadership too. Congratulations on that, thanks but Thanks.
Speaker 3:But you know what? It's often misunderstood that it was a Republican that did the first environmental legislation and GW. In Texas put in more wind energy than the rest of the United States combined back in those days. So it's not just talked about very much.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, if you think about it too. I mean we can say Elon Musk is more Republican. So, believe it or not, it's within a person. Yeah, a platform is just placating If I'm a Democrat or I'm a Republican. If you look at the numbers, both parties are pretty much ran by the same organizations. The same groups of people donate.
Speaker 3:That's right with nature and the environment, have not gone nearly as fast as they could because they've been derailed by polarity, versus focusing on the things that bring us all together, right, which are, you know, being able to handle change, safety, making a good living, making a profitable business. Like these are things everybody wants, and I really think everyone wants a healthy nature and environment and air too.
Speaker 2:So it's just let's stop with all the politis, you know, making politics part of it. Well, that's the only way you get fundraising. That's also the only way you get people to go out and vote about it. If people had that same passion towards personal development, towards business development, as they do, either watching CNN, or if they're watching Fox News or NPR or TikTok, or however they get their information from, they'd be so way ahead of themselves you know what?
Speaker 3:40 of americans are getting their news off of social media now, and social media is solely tailored thanks to our friend at ai, you know to whatever you like, so you're not even getting any objective views. You know there was always propaganda throughout all of history, right? But now it's to such an extent, and since half of our population is getting our news now that way, it's no surprise. You know how things are turning out.
Speaker 2:So propaganda is just a nice way of saying manipulation. Right, yeah, right on. And here I know you help out organizations and you help out leadership. But isn't that wild that people don't understand. A company is similar to a country. It's run by, there's a board, the president, the CEO yeah, we can fire a president, just like we can fire a CEO. That's right. We can fire a president just like we can fire a CEO, that's right. What I love best about your book is it's transformational, in the sense that I literally left corporate America because so many companies needed to read your book. I'm going to plug it right now. I'm going to say what book it is, because I want and, tabitha, you're going to laugh To me there's a difference between a boss and a leader. I actually wrote a book. A boss is the person that goes, he orders all those posters, teamwork. He doesn't implement it, but it looks great, right, it looks great.
Speaker 2:Flower medals in the background and mountains and hr gives you like a book bigger than war and peace on what you cannot do the whole company is is it's like this attitude of that's not my job, that's not.
Speaker 2:they are completely tuned out, toxic leadership all the way. The boss because he's not a toxic boss goes all the way down. A leader doesn't have to have you know leadership, he doesn't have to have teamwork. I love that one. It's always a picture of rowers Leadership's the one with the eagle flying through the valley. Picture of rowers leadership's the one with the eagle flying through the valley. And tabitha's book, the current insight series, powering change the hidden resource to unleash potential, but productivity and profits. So and I got the honor of having a digital copy, so it it blew my mind because isn't this how we should really run businesses, organizations? I think it is.
Speaker 3:I think it is. I think that all the answers are around us, in nature. And if you want to get really fast and adaptable and complex and innovative, then you need to look at nature and all of the examples in it. Then you need to look at nature and all of the examples in it, and we, as Americans especially, have this notion of, oh, let's save the poor planet, and I'm saying, turn that shit on its head, because the planet's been evolving for 4 billion years. Modern business about 350. And so if you want to look at neural networks, that will blow away our most advanced AI, look at mycelium networks.
Speaker 3:Like I write about in the book, there's no waste in nature, right, everything is perfectly in balance and efficient. And why are we feeling so off balance as a workforce today? Because we've gotten so far away from the natural order of things. Our businesses don't appreciate that there's a very predictable growth cycle they're all going to go through, because it's the law of science, right? Like you can't skip from one stage to the other without going through all cycles and then hopping onto the new curve, and so you pick the wrong leader at the wrong time, like Southwest did last year during the Christmas season. That's what happened with their fiasco. They picked a person that was streamlining and refining, when they need a revolutionary that would add technology back into the company. So all of our answers that we need for business today. Every modern crisis can be solved through nature.
Speaker 2:Now, speaking of Southwest, don't you think sometimes when the founder, the CEO, is larger than life? When there's, it's Gary Keller, right Well?
Speaker 3:he, Gary Kelly, was the second one that came on to refine and streamline and he was brought in at the right time because, you're right, they were heading up that big growth curve and he's the one that streamlined them into specialized buckets to be able to grow fast and scale. But then he brought in somebody just like him to replace him instead of a revolutionary. You know that would pop them onto the next curve.
Speaker 2:But that's what usually happens is we don't understand that. You have to evolve. If you don't evolve, you become Kodak, which that's right At one time you know Fortune 500, one of the top stocks in the Dow. Kodak can't go anywhere, but up Now. Yes, seasoned people like our age know what Kodak was. But if you ask my two teenage daughters hey, what do you guys think about Kodak as a company?
Speaker 3:Or Blockbuster, or Compaq, you know.
Speaker 2:Compaq was the computer. Yeah, dude it was. I mean yeah, in fact, right there during that time, apple was like on the verge of complete collapse. Yeah, and you know, people have short term memories, but OK, as a kid I remember, oh my gosh Apple. It was like so expensive for starters.
Speaker 2:Yeah, because it's like the edgy cool, you know, single parent, my, my mom got me one and it was like oh, wow I had a tandy 1000 but don't worry, I, I, I can talk about that, that I've had a computer, but my skills when it comes to tech is I just literally mastered the word processor.
Speaker 3:Sweet, there you go.
Speaker 2:But okay, there's CEOs. We'll put Gary Keller, We'll put Steve Jobs, We'll put Howard Schultz. Can we put Bob Iger? I don't know. I mean, as of yesterday he looks like he came back to save the company, just like Howard Schultz.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and if you look at like Steve Jobs, he they didn't like the dude, but they knew that he was the fresh air that they needed. They needed somebody that's at the beginning of the growth curve to come in, that thinks into the future, versus somebody to refine. They were whittling away and so they brought him in at the right time and then they got him out of the way at the right time to bring on the next leader, to scale them up the next curve.
Speaker 2:Now I'm an arts and science guy. I've got two degrees in journalism. I don't have an MBA. I might have dabbled in a couple of classes in business. This is something that you say in your book. That's like completely out there that business is like a breathing entity, like an organic organism.
Speaker 3:It's an organism, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Which is, like you know, the little business classes that I did take at LSU. I think you would have given an aneurysm to one of my professors saying that. Explain that to us.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's an, it's an organism, because let's let's break this down First. Organizations are made of people, right? And all people, all living things, everything, everything with DNA in it, is made of energy the same energy, by the way, which is why, at our core, we all react to the laws of science equal and opposite reaction. You ever had a new idea? You're trying to get through and you've. You know, the first thing you expect is I don't have budget, I don't have resources, I can't. It's our natural equal and opposite reaction. Versus getting behind something that somebody wants to do or they're energized by Now you're adding momentum, and so taking these laws of science and motion and movement and complexity and just applying it to humans is the first step.
Speaker 3:Well, businesses go through those same growth curves, you know, over and over again. If you look at every business model, you know the new wave model, whether it's back when total quality management came in, or then you have, like design thinking today, right, they're all useful in one part of that curve and not useful in the other parts. And so it's all about recognizing that growth cycle for your business and for the people in it, because the people at the bottom of the curve love risk. They think into the future. They're entrepreneurs like you, the people at the top. They hate risk and they try to find it and kill it. So they're great for auditing and accounting and streamlining things. But you get the wrong person in the wrong spot or you get the wrong leader. When a business is at the wrong cycle, or you don't recognize, like Blockbuster, you got to adapt onto the next curve, then you fall off and you die.
Speaker 2:So if you want a living business, you gotta keep jumping on in the next cycle so, literally though, it can be like brain surgery, because, if you think about it, a company like blockbuster could have saved itself if it, yeah, if, if it would have taken Reed Hastings, founder CEO of Netflix, if they would have taken the offer I forgot what the offer was that they left.
Speaker 3:You're absolutely right. I can't remember what it was either, but they had an offer on the table. They turned it down and then just miserably failed, but they didn't recognize what part of the growth cycle they were in. You know you're in decline. You need innovation. You need to either exit the market or, you know, reinvent yourself.
Speaker 2:And they didn't either, but a company like Blockbuster. It was like hitting the Titanic. It didn't just sink right off the bat, it was a slow. The Titanic, it didn't just sink right off the bat, it was a slow process.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and companies can stay in that maturity phase, which in the old days we would call a cash cow. They could stay in that for years and years. You know, look at Nabisco, look at Tractor Supply Company, look at these large companies who are mature in what they do and they haven't done anything totally disruptive yet, but they can milk it out for a very long time. But as soon as you start that decline phase, you better get innovative really quick.
Speaker 2:Well, sometimes it's too late because I was one of the last members of Blockbuster, I was the late adopter to Netflix.
Speaker 3:Do you still have your purple card?
Speaker 2:I actually had my original, my laminated one. I was one of those old souls Get off my lawn. I want to be able to visually see the movie.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:And so I was. I need to see, see the box, I need to walk the store. So I was the late adopter. But it was funny because then blockbuster was trying to do the the mailers as well as have their brick and mortar. They're like, oh well, for an extra it was like 1999 two or three movies and then you just send them back to us and we'll send you whatever's on your queue and it's like, well, isn't that what Netflix is doing?
Speaker 3:I think I've heard this before, oddly.
Speaker 2:So there is a time though it's too late, a company cannot be saved Like Blockbuster. Though it's too late it a company cannot be saved like like blockbuster. There was once, once it took on all that, all that water, all the, all that losses, once it saw netflix just be, instead of being the, the hunter or the. You know, they became the hunted because they became the top dog. It was just.
Speaker 3:That's right. But you know what? The time you have a lot of entrepreneurial listeners and the time you need to start thinking about reinvention is the time that things are going great. Once you start growing really fast and it's going great, now it's you're halfway up that curve and you better start thinking about what do I do after this cycle is over, because it is not going to last forever. That's the one thing that we do know. It can't last forever. You can extend it for years and years, but eventually it's going to come back down, and so always be thinking about the next thing. And what happens in companies? You get the innovator in the big idea, starts up the ramps and they start getting in silos and streamlining and so your innovative people disappear because it's no longer fun. You know they're handcuffed and too much compliance, no freedom, no creativity. So companies have to find a way to box that off and have a skunk works or an innovation lab or some way to keep those innovative people around and keep them, you know, moving forward well, everybody needs to reinvest.
Speaker 2:not only do we have to reinvest ourselves in leadership books or training, personal development, business development. I don't know whether I think it's hasbro, it might be Mattel, one of the two stuck, never innovated, just doing the same toy year in and year out, and then for years one it was one bad quarter, then two bad quarters, and they don't see a pattern. And then it's like two years, three years of declining sales. Yeah so, and what's crazy is now that's a toxic leader, because shouldn't there be some writing on the way? Hey, we're doing the same thing over and over it's time to make a movie exactly somebody said that, and now they're doing a bit better.
Speaker 2:I would wager so tabitha, you're an innovator, I get it. You're way forward and you're thinking, and you're thinking of being. We need to have leaders instead of bosses. Did you always? Did you? When you came across, starting out what? What was your experience? Were you working for a lot of toxic companies or were you just like the unicorn that just worked everywhere? You worked until you became CEO. It was just like your ideal setting.
Speaker 3:Well, I wouldn't say it's ideal. I've had a lot of interesting experiences along the way, one of which was I don't think you could get away with this today, but early on I was actually told by the president of a company I was working with and his chairman of the board that you were much more qualified than the dude we're going to hire for this role of investments advisor, than the dude we're going to hire for this role of investments advisor. But I just have to tell you nobody's going to give money to a young female.
Speaker 3:So we gave it to somebody else and I was so young and so naive. I was like, well, thank you for telling me I did so well. So I've had several of those happen along the way, but I tell you what early in my career I worked for a privately held electronic payments company before PayPal, and it was like a dream come true, because if you could set the vision, they were cavalier enough to say, all right, go get it. And we ended up getting the first electronic payments program for Department of Defense to they privatized military housing. So we got the rent payments program for that and that then got me into doing innovation and sustainability for some of my clients, which were big builders, building companies, and that got into renewable energy assets and it was doing the things that I loved to do. So I had that blend of young entrepreneurial company into large global you know, huge mega companies and you know back and forth again, you know over time. So it's been a blend of both and I'm grateful for all the lessons that I've learned from each.
Speaker 2:Now I love the book but I got to say usually toxic leadership, stuck leadership, stuffy set in their ways. They don't believe in growth gonna this. This book is like an aha book that could you imagine if every amazing boss not later just bosses all these?
Speaker 3:all these people read how quickly I, I mean, we try to make it really simple.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but that shift People don't. I mean people don't understand that In a dying environment or one filled with cancer toxicity, the revolving door Is caused by the ineffective leadership, the toxic leader. But in their mind they sell themselves the story it's hard to hire, it's hard to hire great people.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, it's not that hard, and even I call it like the AAA framework. You assess people, what are they great at, what are they energized by? So you want to get the right butt in the right seat. Align that to what you need for each project. Technology is changing too fast today to think that it's going to be one size fits all. You know it's just not feasible anymore and then adapt.
Speaker 3:You have to constantly adapt as things are changing and even if you have a crappy boss for your leader if you understand that about yourself, like I know, I love innovation, what's new, so I might take a job. If it's short term, I have to go in there and streamline and find risks and follow up. You know constant rules, but it better be short term because I know that's not going to be a fit long term. So I would avoid that and then align yourself to do more of the stuff you love to do. I mean because we're made of energy. Think about our language right In business. That company's transformed.
Speaker 3:She lit up a room. I feel drained. I feel energized, you know. And what is the thing that comes up over your head whenever you have a good idea? It's a light bulb right. So everything comes back to energy. If you figure out what energizes, you try to do more of it, even gamify your workday with it. If you have to do crappy reports you hate, then say I'm going to do it for two hours and then I'm going to go walk my dog or whatever you know, eat some chocolate. But the more you can do things that energize you throughout your day, you can manage up with those crappy bosses and avoid burnout, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, hey, I'm, I'm. I agree with you a hundred percent. I came out of retirement and started working for going back into corporate America and I got to say your book, I mean, it's something you and I are on board completely, but it's like people. There's's two types of people those that believe in personal development and those that say it doesn't work.
Speaker 2:but they're the ones that really need yeah isn't that funny, how that happens exactly and and I I get it because I mean the companies, some of the companies that I've worked for and you you would think they have everything in place. They've got the meditation yeah, mandatory meditation at the beginning of the week, and at the end of the week you're like, oh, wow, this, this looks good, this, this is thriving and okay, that's on this. You know that's very surface level, but you, you have to, you have to be great. It's like saying you're completely healthy because you go to the gym but you're sneaking out and eating big macs and and eating in and out burger or whatever fast food people love to eat and it's like, well, deep down inside, you're not healthy.
Speaker 2:And it's the same thing with the company. You, you want don't and I know as a leader when you were ceo, it's a win-win mentality, because the number one thing is when people leave, the number one expense is you have to train trains expensive. When you have to train new people, you have to train them in the systems and in the process, and then you also have to get them on board to your culture, whatever culture you have, because every organization has a culture, just like what you said. Yeah, every living being has its culture has its own personality.
Speaker 3:And if you can't connect with them. You know, if we're all made of energy and people are feeling so off balance, especially after COVID, and so burnout, it's because there's no connection. You can't turn on a light if it's not connected to power right? So if you're not connecting with the people you work with or that work for you or your boss, like you can't direct things forward. And then the more exact and precise you can be about this is what I expect, or you know, the more you can direct things, you get that Venturi effect back to nature and the laws of physics. You know it'll go faster if you're clear about your directions, if you're a good leader, about what you expect, and then you can accelerate things from there with purpose. Purpose is like throwing fuel on a flame People will do more, they're happier, they're more engaged, they're more innovative, they're more productive, they're more profitable when they have purpose with what they do.
Speaker 2:It's all about purpose, it's all about being in service, because if we believe that we're doing the right thing, we believe we're solving issues, we're solving problems for the customer, for the client, for the prospect that hopefully will become that, you'll be completely bought in. Yeah, you're like you. You won't have burnout because you'll have that same passion, because you're like let's roll. Do you think? Sometimes burnout is just like that feeling, a dread, that somewhere in your soul you're like man, why am I here? This isn't where I'm supposed to be. We're not doing anything productive here. Yeah, we're making the board money, we're making the CEO money, we're making someone else the founder money, but we're not really doing anything positive.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely, burnout comes from being in a role that's opposite of what you are naturally energized by. So it might be you love working with people and you are isolated in your job. It might be that you're forced to work with people and you prefer to be behind the scenes, you know, and not work with them so much. It could be risk versus risk averse. You know, risk taker versus risk aversion. It could be that you're a generalist, like a general physician, or maybe you're a specialist and you're being forced into a generalist role. But if you're put in a role that's opposite of where you are and the more opposite it is, the faster you're going to burn out. I mean, it's that. It's that straightforward and purpose is what energizes you. So, 100%, I agree with you. It all comes back to purpose and people are naturally energized in different ways. So if you don't know what that is, you're not aligning, you're not adapting, you know you're not getting the most out of people.
Speaker 2:Now, you and I, we've been, we've seen the modern workplace or evolve, I guess within, well, I'm 50, so almost 30 years. Do you really see much of a change, for the good or the bad, in the way companies manage or train management?
Speaker 3:It's all across the board, because I think you have this younger generation with this movement of I refuse to be part of the problem or the system and they have a lot more realization of what's going on and a desire to have purpose-driven work.
Speaker 3:So I do think there are some things that are being raised as awareness and improving. There's a lot of things around sustainability and economic inclusion and socioeconomic inclusion that are emerging and becoming more positive term returns at expense of all else. Then we're going to struggle. We're going to struggle and we're also going to struggle when you have the very top of the company making a hundred or a thousand times more than the boots on the ground that are making your company profitable. You know you're paying minimum wage to your retailers in the store and then your very top leaders are, you know, ridiculously wealthy, and I'm not saying they shouldn't be able to earn a lot of money, but I think what causes this friction and tension is that you know we're going to just do things short and fast and simple and cut things. You know, for the majority, the 90% in favor of the 10% getting to look good to the stock market for one more report.
Speaker 2:So what Tabitha is saying, Bob is you're making a hell of a lot of money for Disney and your pay is incredible, but the majority of people that work for the house of mouse are struggling the house of mouse is struggling and they get a lot of free labor, which their college you know for college credit. You can learn how to sweep at disney world and you can learn how to do the rides and you can work for free. You.
Speaker 3:You know what?
Speaker 3:There are so many scary statistics now, I think it's like the age of 51 is now the average age of home ownership for the first time, if that doesn't say something. When I was growing up, you could have one of the spouses working at the grocery store and that was enough to buy a house. People cannot afford to buy houses anymore. They can't afford to build generational wealth and it's really shifted out of proportion. So not to say that some people haven't earned more than others or things like that, it's a societal shift. There's like 60% of seniors that can't afford housing. What are we going to do with that? Because there's more baby boomers today and more people age 65 than there has been in the history of the United States, and so what are we going to do about these things?
Speaker 2:You know. So then, what you're saying is all the, all of us that are poo-pooing the millennials and the gen z's on the well. We can't afford housing, and it's not like what it was they're being honest.
Speaker 2:They are being honest there's some great documentaries out there about that um, growing up in my neighborhood, uh, most of the moms I mean my, my mom was single parent. It was weird being from a divorced, uh parent growing up in the late 70s, early 80s, but most, most of my friends, their mom were stay-at-home moms, that's. That's like speaking a foreign language. Now, yeah, there's no way, unless you're like you're married to mark zuckerberg or you're, or or you're, you know you're, you're married to, to somebody making millions, it's, it's true, but the. The one thing when it comes to leadership, though, that I've noticed is old leadership is trying to hold on. Yeah, because when you said, these millennials and these Gen Z's have had enough and they want purpose driven work, that's where you hear all the old guys saying they're lazy.
Speaker 2:They're they're soft, they're. They're soft, they're this, yeah, that. And really it's because these kids have seen people us, their moms, their grandparents, their dad being treated like crap. Yeah, I mean, my mom would still drink the Kool-Aid and wanted me to work my whole life in corporate America, but there was one time she just worked for AT&T, mom Bell, southern Bell, whatever they want to call themselves, and she was getting too old and making too much money. And just one day thankfully, it was after I graduated making too much money, and just one day, thankfully it was after I graduated. And they're like, hey, thank you, so nice to know you.
Speaker 3:When kids see that, yeah, how can we say, suck it up, it's loyalty, we want you here for 30 40 and it's like, yeah, you don't you want to make as much as possible and you know, fill out your tickets about surveys and it's interesting I talk about survey bias in the book as well, because you have to assess. You know and I go through all the different types that companies just don't even think about that as they're. You know they're like oh well, we, we got best place to work again. But you sent out a bunch of emails saying we're going after this and we really hope you'll, you know, answer it in a positive way, because this is good for all of us, you know well, here here's the statute of limitations.
Speaker 2:What what I? I worked for edward jones investments for years before I became an entrepreneur. I was a financial advisor and it was rated for like three years in a row fortune magazine number one company to work for.
Speaker 2:Now, on the surface, you're like man, I gotta work there, it's I'm gonna go there yeah, and if you asked all of us, it was like horrible, it was just like they kept on telling us to vote. Yeah, it was 100 participation. If everybody's saying this is like the cure for cancer, you know, it's like we're trying to bamboozle new people yeah, you're here now. It's like it's like Survivor and you're like this is the number one company to work for Holy smokes. I'd hate to see number 100.
Speaker 3:It's true, and you wonder how those things happen. But if you think about how people are, you know, kind of coerced, or they feel like their jobs are in jeopardy, what? What is the truth? You know, and I spend a whole section talking about, like truth and trust, the two five letter T words.
Speaker 2:We just don't have them anymore. Yeah, we just don't have them anymore. Yeah, trust, those are two things that are out the door. If not only our society doesn't have it, how can we expect it to be in the workplace?
Speaker 3:yeah, yeah, I break down the things. Um, the book is written in a way that the first part is the accelerating pace of change. You know, like the whole year 2000, the pace, pace of change, you know, like the whole year 2000,. The pace of technological change is now replicated every 30 seconds. And you know, on our phone, our personal devices, we carry more technology and computing power than the spaceship that first went up. You know, the first year NASA landed on the moon and it's just our brains can't keep up with that. And so this accelerating pace of change and disconnection, distraction, you know, talking about the stats there in our attention span and what it's doing to us, that's what causes this off balance feeling and disconnection and that's what leads to burnout.
Speaker 3:And then the middle part of the book talks about the natural systems, like diversity, like neural networks, you know, like the laws of physics that can put us back in touch, that can put all of those things connected again. And then the third section has real business case studies, double blind, live studies with billion dollar organizations that took place all over the world. And so this is 15 years of research showing. Just think back. You know we talk about doing like net zero buildings today, and I'm like would it be been building for tens of thousands of years? They didn't have air conditioning and electricity. This is not new, this is old. Remember what it was like to be living in harmony with nature? And you're going to figure all of this crap out and you're going to figure all of this crap out.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean, all you have to do is go to the eternal city of Rome or Pompeii, or even, if you want to go, look at indigenous stuff.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:And it's like people sometimes we think we're so evolved, but have we really, when they were way more in touch with nature? Less problems, you said it best. We have a phone, and what are we using with it? If someone had told me in high school, when I was sleeping through high school, that one day I can do a term paper on this, this little thing yeah.
Speaker 2:I can research I. I can ask someone out on a date I I can. No need for an encyclopedia, no need to know about the Dewey decimal system I can.
Speaker 3:I can get letters in my little email box.
Speaker 2:I can do everything with it. It would be mind-blowing and I'm like, oh my gosh, so is it like the Jetsons? Are we flying cars? Do we find a cure for cancer? Is everybody as smart as Einstein?
Speaker 2:Like no people usually in general, just watch videos of women. They're on TikTok, they're on tiktok, they're on tiktok. They go on social media, they go on this platform that they can use as a tool, but instead they pretend they're politicians and they want to tell people their views, their social views, their political views and their religious views. Oh, wow, congratulations. I mean I we're, all you know, in a tab. Do I use my phone as a tool? Yeah, I read, I read your notes, I read your book. I read your book on the phone, on my desktop, my laptop, but there's youtube. There's so much. When I look at at your book, it's like these are forward-thinking books. These are the type of books that pushes people towards becoming who they're always meant to be. My podcast is based on your book taking risk. Taking risk, yeah, going out there, not being stuck. You know it's. It's like everybody doesn't understand. If you want change, you have to create change that's right.
Speaker 3:You got to jump on the next growth curve. You got to reinvent yourself yeah, you have.
Speaker 2:Every company can do that, whether it's a mom and pop or whether you know a fortune 500 company, publicly traded corporation. But but yet, a lot of times, we all want that change and we all want those results without changing, which is impossible.
Speaker 3:Well, we have no limits, in reality, to how many times we can reinvent ourselves. There's absolutely no limit. The only way that we control things is to control ourself, our own reaction to them, and there is no limit to that. And once people really get their heads wrapped around that, you can continue to reinvent yourself. It doesn't matter if you're 90 years old, reinvent yourself.
Speaker 2:Cher keeps on reinventing herself.
Speaker 3:Yeah, she rocks.
Speaker 2:The thing I love is about reinventing yourself. It's always been there for us. I mean, we love the stories. We love Charles Dickens, we love the Christmas story, the Christmas tale. You know, ebenezer Scrooge, horrible boss, everybody hates him. He, he, he learns a lesson from three different four people, if you count his dead partner, and he wakes up transformed. He wakes up as the leader instead of the boss that everybody wants. And is it that easy? Yeah, all it really takes is a decision, correct. Yeah.
Speaker 3:And changing your behavior. It's so interesting. I love Malcolm Gladwell's work.
Speaker 2:And.
Speaker 3:I love his podcast too, and it's so simple, it's like, it's relevant and it's actionable. Just give them one damn thing to do at a time and that's it. Otherwise people get frozen in action. And what do companies, with the bad leaders, do, do? Here's the new policy and 10 things to start doing. Well, that overwhelms people. You know how? What's in it for me? How's that relate to me? And just give me one thing at a time. And if you do that, you can see this huge organizational shift. And we give examples where companies did that. And if you stop thinking of top down, I mean what in nature grows from top down.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 3:Nothing.
Speaker 2:Imagine how can there be growth if leadership has, to quote the Rolling Stones under my bum, yeah, you can't grow, you can't spread your wings, you can't lead, you can't grow and become the potential. Everybody will be checked out, everybody, that's. That's where I said hey, that's my, not my department. You know right off the bat, anywhere that you go with customer service, hey, can you solve this issue for me? If they're like like, yeah, let me go do that. That's the company that everybody's bought into it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know Branson, who has the Virgin Companies and many other companies, Everything.
Speaker 2:Virgin.
Speaker 3:Everything Virgin. Yes, how he hires people. I used to know one of his HR folks that worked pretty close to the top of that organization and she said they'll go find like a barista at a coffee shop and if they're a really great person that resonates with personalities, they can train them up all day long to be a hotel, you know person that greets people there. So it's not about a specialty of education. You can educate people but it's finding those people that are energized by what you need.
Speaker 3:You need people that resonate with other people. So you know, observe that trait, and then you can train them up and whatever you want to train them up in.
Speaker 2:I've only read his books and I've only seen interviews. I've never seen him in person, but just by reading his material. Who would not want to work for one of his companies?
Speaker 2:Right, let's go, let's, everybody's bought into it, let's do it, but but that's why I mean just let's be like most of his businesses. Yes, some like virgin records, and he even acknowledges not everything's a success. Yeah, but in general there's a fighting chance. In general I'm okay. His airline was amazing. I'm sure it's not now because they just took Alaskan air. Instead of letting it be virgin air and letting it grow and letting it be an outlier, they just bought it for the routes and the planes and whatnot, and that's that.
Speaker 2:It lost its nuance, yes, but we need to be more like that. I mean, think about it. Who doesn't want to work for a guy like that, but who doesn't also want to emulate a guy like that? When it comes to marketing, you know, market your business, market yourself. We all have something to sell. I mean, here, here we are. On a Friday, I had we both your agent had to sell me and I had to sell you on doing it on a different day, but we're all there, and that's why, you know, when I read, when I originally saw the book, I'm like, okay, just another one. But when I literally read it and, yes, people buy it on Instagram.
Speaker 2:I'm not always showing like that, but it did, because, you know, I've worked for the checked out people, I've worked for the toxic environments, I've been a leader. At times, I've been a horrible boss or a great leader. It's because of books like this, though, because you have, you're either growing and evolving. There's no static or static. You can't just stand still, because if you stand still, you're going to die, you're going to be the codex, you're going to be the block you're part of a living organism exactly, exactly until you're not, and it dies and goes bankrupt, you know well, it's some statistic that all the high flyers will eventually die.
Speaker 2:You know they're. They're the list besides kodak. If, if we looked at the Dow stocks from 1950, the Fortune 500, a lot of companies, over 80% have failed.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Because, when you said it best, nothing lasts forever, even societies. Rome had a thousand year run, but it had to collapse.
Speaker 3:Yeah. And what are those signs of maturity in our society and how are we going to reinvent those and how are we going to choose the right leaders of our economy to do that? Those are the tough questions to chew on.
Speaker 2:Oh, those are the tough questions to chew on. You know, oh, that those are the tough questions. But what we don't realize too, is, with all this division and all this, it's my way or the highway, the only way to grow is teamwork. I have another degree in history, you know, from 13 colonies to 13 states. Eventually, if we don't change our ways, eventually, if it's not just all of us, one day we will be like Rome. Hopefully I won't be around me too.
Speaker 3:You're right what is a better system? Starts with what's not working today, and how can we adapt. You know, it's all about adapting. It's all about adapting.
Speaker 2:Understanding other people's world. When you said it best diversity. Diversity is a great thing. I had a boss you know how you had your story about. You're a woman. I had a boss tell me that I didn't have a face for TV and and that I was Hispanic, which you know. Now it's like Holy smokes, Do you want to do? You want your company to get sued? But yeah, wow, man, thanks for your, your honesty, but that's your, only that's your opinion, which I get it. Yeah, wow, man, thanks for your, your honesty, but that's your, only, that's your opinion, which I get it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it's interesting. Diversity of all types is important. You know our backgrounds, our socioeconomics, our education, our ethnicity and also our cognitive. You know the ways we think, which is what we were talking about earlier. You know the ways we think, which is what we were talking about earlier. You know some people prefer being around people. Some people prefer complexity, other specialization, but getting the diversity of cognitive thinking and technologies and I talk about that in the book you can map technologies on the growth curve. If you want future forward, that's your AI. You know generative AI. If you want something in the middle, like executing, that's data management. And if you want to go up to risk mitigation and reducing errors, that's automation and so giving the people the right tools in the right place. Everything goes back to growth cycles. Everything. Nature's a badass.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I, I, I thank you, you for your time, thank you for your book too. Hey, it's my pleasure.
Speaker 3:Thanks for reading it and for having me on your show today powering.
Speaker 2:Change the hidden resource to unleash potential productivity and profits. I know how to find it, I know where to buy it, but now is your chance to tell us how do we buy it. I know you wrote a second book which I'm going to order on Amazon because that actually when I read that I'm like whoa, it's, it's, it follows, similar to this when do we buy that? Where do we buy both books? How do we find you and all the other good stuff?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so your favorite bookseller online. I'm going to be there, so head over to Tabitha A Scott dot com and there's a tab for books and it will show you my upcoming book signing tour, what cities I'll be in, and it also has this book Powering Change, as well as Trust your Animal Instincts, which is all about burnout and a true story of my life.
Speaker 2:So you had burnout.
Speaker 3:I walked away from an executive global career at the end of 2016, gave away my stuff, went and lived in the jungle for three months and, yes, wrote a book about what I learned, so that nobody else does that.
Speaker 2:You know that should be like a Netflix movie, just based on that?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's very interesting it was.
Speaker 3:It was interesting. I grew up on a small farm and so we had all of these, you know, farm animals. It was not a production farm, just more like pet horses, you know, and chickens and ducks and things. So I've always resonated with nature and this book is literally about getting the answers to life's at the time. Crises, you know, divorce after 21 years, empty nesting, walking away from my job, corporate burnout you know all the things that were happening. And now, you know I realized, through a series of messages, like I would see snakes for a long time and then realized, oh, shed your skin. You know, you're being held back, you're allowing yourself to be held back. And so the book talks about a series of animals both in the US and in Costa Rica and the jungle that I encountered. And you can't make that stuff up, it's pretty amazing.
Speaker 2:Well, here's a question I have to ask Tabitha what do you have to tell the person that's in the audience or whatnot that doesn't. He owns a company. He's a boss set in his ways. It's always been my way. Or the highway. Why fix something that's broken? What words do you have to tell them when it comes to? Maybe it's time to make that shift?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I go back to since we brought up trust your animal instincts. I'm going to use the bat as an example. And bats have to literally risk dropping to their death in order to fly, the way that they're designed. They can't take off from the ground like other birds. And until you take some risk, until you try to fix what's broken, until you trust yourself that whatever failure you might have is still better than where you're sitting today, then that can change your life. That can change your life. So let go. It's not an action of always moving forward and pushing and making it happen. Sometimes it's just letting the heck go of what is holding you back and allowing life to come to you. Allow the opportunities to come to you, Life to come to you.
Speaker 2:Allow the opportunities to come to you, talk about having faith, talk about being courageous and talk about being vulnerable. To do all that, but I love it. Success it's all about being, and surpassing, that comfort zone. Tabitha, thank you for your time, thanks.
Speaker 3:Omar, thank you for the book.
Speaker 2:Thank you for your time. Thanks, omar, thank you for the book, thank you for the opportunity and okay, just what an amazing topic, what an amazing person. Even though it says in your bio that you're an innovator, in my book you're an uber innovator.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much. Well, come on out here to Boulder, colorado, sometime, and we'll do a live broadcast sometime.
Speaker 2:Oh for sure, I'm always in Colorado. It's when I retire that steamboat.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah, I have a friend there. It is beautiful. Well, come on out and we shall talk again.
Speaker 2:Thank you.
Speaker 1:Definitely. Come on out and we shall talk again. Thank you, was trapped inside that prison all for a long time. To make it happen, you gotta take action. Just imagine what if it did work.